Research Process - in brief: How do I search the article databases?

Goal: Find research on infectious disease epidemics of the past, to inform analysis and planning for the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Starting from the Sawyer Library home page, select:

Databases > Databases by Subject > Social Sciences > Academic Search Complete. 

Note: Academic Search Complete is part of the family of databases from the vendor EBSCO, which also includes discipline specific databases, such as Business Source Complete, Political Science Complete, PsycINFO, and SocINDEX among others. These databases share common features. Students who become familiar with one, have learned transferable skills that may be applied to the remaining databases.

• College level research papers should include references to articles from journals that require a process of 'peer-review.'
• Note the option to limit search results to articles from peer-reviewed journals, which in the EBSCO databases is located in the left margin.
• TIME SAVER: Check off the Full Text box to limit results to only those articles which are available in the full text. 

Journals, magazines, & newspapers are published 'periodically:'

• Daily newspaper
• Weekly magazine
• Monthly journal

Hence the term 'periodical databases.'

• APA (American Psychological Association): used in the social sciences, including business.
• MLA (Modern Language Association): used in English and writing classes.
• Chicago Style / Turabian: used in history.
• APSA (American Political Science Association): used in political science and government classes.

Academic Search Complete covers a wide range of disciplines, and often functions as a good starting point. 

The search below begins by looking for articles on past influenza epidemics. 

Look at the Subject Terms that are assigned to the various results. There may be one that matches your topic.  Clicking on the Subject Term will start a brand new search. 

• There were 500 resulting articles that all share the Subject Term "Influenza Epidemic, 1918-1919." That is too many to realistically sift through.
• One option is to narrow the search, by adding an additional term (concept) to make the search more specific.
• The search below has been modified to find articles that relate to government actions, or policies, in response to the 1918-1919 epidemic. 
• Type a single concept in each search box. A search combining two concepts will use two rows of search boxes.
• The *AND* designates that both concepts (in this instance the Subject Term for the influenza epidemic, and the added keyword policy) must appear in the results. 

Note: Your search terms may bring unanticipated results.

In this example, the first result is from the Journal of African American History. The article discusses the overtly segregationist policies known as 'Jim Crow,' and their impact on how the 1918-19 epidemic was experienced in Chicago.

• The search above only generated 26 results. It seems logical that there should be more articles on the government response to the influenza epidemic. 
• Expand the search by typing additional terms that could be used to describe one of the concepts.
• Type just one concept per box!!!
• Use the *OR* to indicate that either of the terms is acceptable, such as policy OR intervention.

Next, results are limited to articles from scholarly, peer-reviewed journals.

For convenience sake, results are also limited to articles that are available in the full text.

Be sure to use the CITE button to generate the citation for the article, in APA, MLA, or Chicago/Turabian format.

The "Permalink" provides a stable URL for the article.

The "Abstract" provides a summary of the article.