TEN TIPS ON HOW TO SEARCH EBSCO DATABASES Contents: Improving Search Results Select a Field Limiters Choose Databases Booleans Operators Use of Subject Terms Phrases Sign in/ alerts / Save Stop Words Citations APA

Let’s learn the ten tips in how to search EBSCO databases from Academic Search Premier. The tips can be applied to all EBSCO databases. Improving Search Results Also search for related words Also search within full text Expanders Limiters Full Text Peer Reviewed Publication Date Geography Gender Age Booleans Operators And Or Not Phrases Stop Words 6. Select a field All text Author Title Subject Terms 7. Choose Databases Business Health Sciences Education Nursing 8. Use of Subject Terms 9. Sign in / Alert / Save Create your own folders Save your searches Save your articles 10. Citations APA

First, let’s learn the steps to access USU databases: please go to our site http://www.usuniversity.edu and select Library (1). Click on Full Text Database Nursing or any College (2). Select Academic Search Premier EBSCO(3) and register (4). 1 3 4 2 Ask the USU librarian for ID & Password. From your USU email to clopez@usuniversity.edu

Let’s click “help”, and learn about the first 3 tips: improving search results (1), Limiters (2) & Boolean Operators (3) 3 3 1 2 1 2

1. Improving your Search Results Try unmarking one or more limiters. Limiters narrow your result list—depending upon the limiters you've chosen, you may have created too narrow of a search. These searches are not designed to yield significant results if you enter long phrases or questions in everyday English By marking the "Also search within full text of the article," you will expand the search. By marking the "Also search for related words" expander EBSCO's thesaurus will find synonyms, alternate spellings and plurals for your search terms

Expanders let you broaden the scope of your search. Example: A search for Neoplasm with the Apply Related Words expander applied would also search for Tumor, Tumour, Tumors, Tumor's, Tumours, and Tumour's.

2. EBSCO Limiters Full Text – Click to limit results to articles with full text. Image Quick View – Click to limit results to articles that contain Image Quick View images available. Cover Story – Click to limit results to articles that were featured as cover stories. Peer Reviewed – Limits search results to articles from peer-reviewed journals. Peer-reviewed journals are publications that include only those articles that have been reviewed and/or qualified by a selected panel of acknowledged experts in the field of study covered by the journal. Date Published – Use this option to search for articles within a specified date range. See EBSCO Click “Help”, under “Searching” click Limiters

3. EBSCO: Booleans And Or Not And combines search terms so that each search result contains all of the terms. For example, travel and Europe finds articles that contain both travel and Europe. Or combines search terms so that each search result contains at least one of the terms. For example, college or university finds results that contain either college or university. Not excludes terms so that each search result does not contain any of the terms that follow it. For example, television not cable finds results that contain television but not cable. And Or Not Each result contains all search terms Each result contains at least one search term Results do not contain the specified terms The search Heart and lung finds items that contain both heart and lung The search heart or lung finds items that contain either heart or items that contain lung The search heart not lung finds items that contain heart but do not contain lung.

4. Using Punctuation in EBSCO databases 4. Using Punctuation in EBSCO databases. If you enter phrases with punctuation, the search engine searches for the term both with and without the punctuation. For example, if you enter television: talk show, the search engine finds results with television talk-show, television talk show, and if synonyms have been activated, TV talk show. If you enter hyphenated words in a search, the search engine automatically searches for the word in both hyphenated and non-hyphenated forms. For example, entering coca-cola will find both Coca Cola and Coca-Cola.

5. Stop words in a Search For example, if you entered company of America, the search engine would find company of America, company in America, or company for America. The stop word or will be replaced with any word. For example if you searched for sink "or" swim, the results could include sink don't swim . For example, if you searched for company of the America, the search engine finds any two words in the place of the stop words. Using Stop Words: articles, pronouns and prepositions (such as the, for, of and after) Stop words are always ignored, even if they are enclosed in quotation marks.

Please get familiar with the information in “Help” 6. Select a field Choose the search field from the optional Select a Field drop-down list. For example, search only: All text = will look for the term in the title, abstract & text Author = will search author’s last name & name Title = will search the title of the article or the title of the journal Subject Terms = will search the word only in the subject term list Please get familiar with the information in “Help”

Second, After selecting “Choose databases” select the databases related to your information need by checking on each box. You can search EBSCO databases simultaneously , all in one search. Please click Choose databases Select the databases according to your subject: Nursing and Health Science: please select CINAHL, PSYCARTICLES, ACADEMIC SEARCH PREMIER and MEDLINE. History, art, literature & science: select ACADEMIC SEARCH PREMIER, it is multidisciplinary and one of the best database in EBSCO. Education: select ACADEMIC SEARCH PREMIER, ERIC (education database) and PSYCARTICLES Business: select ACADEMIC SEARCH PREMIER, BUSINESS SOURCE ELITE, PSYCARTICLES & REGIONAL BUSINESS NEWS Select All for: Business and healthcare, Education and healthcare administration,

8. Use of Subject Terms In order to know the vocabulary used to identify the document, we need to search the Subject Terms. Click on Subject Terms. Type your word or words and click Browse Click in the subject term of your interest To learn more about subject terms, please go to tutorial: Research Topics & Terms

For more information see tutorials: 9. Sign in, Save and Alert We invite you to use EBSCO server to save searches & create Alerts. You will receive the latest of your topics of interest For more information see tutorials: Searching Medline Register Ebscohost Alerts Create Alerts & Files in EBSCOhost

Please add: Retrieved from Medline with Full Text, EBSCOHost. 10. APA / MLA Citations Click for Citation Please add: Retrieved from Medline with Full Text, EBSCOHost.

Remember to check SUBJECT TERMS not only for Academic Search Premier, but for all the EBSCO databases. Your results will be relevant and VERY DIFFERENT then just using your own vocabulary.

Let us know if you need assistance Catalina Lopez clopez@usuniversity or (619) 477 6310 Ext 2017 THANKS