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Data: Finding Data within Sawyer Library Resources (and on the web): Search for Articles/Reports containing Data

This guide points to selected reference sources and periodical databases, provided by Suffolk University's Sawyer Library, which contain significant amounts of data and statistical content.

Ebsco Databases: Limit to Charts


The Ebsco databases, such as Academic Search Complete and Business Source Complete, allow users to limit searches to articles containing images, which can be specified to charts or graphs. This option is located at the lower right hand corner of the Advanced Search screen.

ABI-Inform: Limit by Document Type

ProQuest's ABI-Inform is a very large database, with a complicated search interface. However, there are ways of trying to limit search results to articles which contain statistics / data:

First, run a search for your topic:


Note that in this example, the search terms constitute a phrase, which has been placed within quotation marks.

Also note the drop down box selection for where the terms may be found within the text. The default is 'Anywhere.' It is preferable to select 'Anywhere except full text' (i.e. within any field: article title, subject headings, abstract, EXCEPT for the full text). See the guide on the use of ABI-Inform for further explanation.

Once the results are displayed (as of 8/15/2013, this search brought back 81,673 results), look for the limit options on the right hand margin:


Open the Document Type menu:

Display the full list of document types:

As of 8/15/2013, after setting the above limitation, 557 results remain. They can be further narrowed by using additional categories: