LibChat: RUC Library

While the details will vary from database to database, here are some broad suggestions to help you get started:

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• Think about your search terms.

  • Consider synonyms and other ways of talking about your topic. If you find a good article, look at terms used in the abstract. You may also want to look at the keywords applied to the article within the database.

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• Consider how recent the information you are looking for needs to be.

  • In most databases, it is possible to limit your search to a specific date range such as the last 5 years.

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• Consider other limits you may want to put on the search.

  • While these again, vary from database to database, common ones include: language the article is written in, article type, or whether the article is scholarly/peer-reviewed. 

  • Please note that we do not recommend using the "Full Text" filter, as it might exclude ideal articles that we can request from other libraries.

Are you stuck or need more help finding articles? Email a librarian and be sure to include the following: details about what information you're looking for, what databases you've already looked in, and the search terms you've already tried.