LibGuides: Chemistry Research Guide: Find Articles

How To Search a Database

A library database is an electronic collection of information. They can contain journals, magazine, and newspaper articles as well as citations, abstracts, and books.

Fant Memorial Library subscribes to over 100 databases. Some of these databases are interdisciplinary and cover different subjects while others are subject-specific and only include information on a certain topic.

All of our databases can be accessed both on and off campus by MUW students.

While the internet can be good for quickly searching for some information, databases are best for academic research.

	Internet	Database
Examples	Google, Wikipedia	Academic Search Complete, JSTOR, OVID, ScienceDirect
Authority/Credentials	Anyone can publish and anyone does. Difficult to verify credentials. Results are not always scholarly.	Authority/credentials are guaranteed. Most articles are scholarly and peer-reviewed.
Results	Thousands. Duplicates are not filtered out. Many are not scholarly.	Hundreds or fewer. Duplicates are filtered out. You can limit to full text.
Relevance	Lots of “noise” because there are no subject headings assigned. Information can be biased, untrue, or irrelevant.	Databases focus on specific subjects. Offer fewer but more relevant results. Results are from scholarly publishers and authors.
Limiters	Can limit by document type (pdf, doc) and source (gov, org, com)	Can limit by date, document type, language, format, peer reviewed status, full text availability, and more.
Stability of information	Information from the Internet is unstable. It can disappear at any time. Researchers will often be asked to pay a fee to access journal articles. (Note: These articles are available to you via the Library as part of your tuition.)	Databases are a collection of articles that have appeared in journals. This makes their status more stable than the Internet. The information is paid for by subscription to be offered as part of a student’s tuition.

Thanks and acknowledgement to Benedictine University's General Library Research Guide which this box is based on.

Here are some helpful search tips to get your database search started:

1. Be Creative

Try using synonyms or different phrases when searching to get slightly different results.

2. Search Multiple Databases

Different databases may have different results based on their subscriptions and algorithms, so try a few before moving on.

3. Don't be afraid of non-full text results

If the database does not have the full article, don't worry! You can put in an InterLibrary Loan request and we will get it for you.

4. Combine and Truncate Search Terms

Using the word AND between words will combine the search terms in database so that only results with both the word before and after AND will be included. Using an asterisk will allow you to search for words that have different endings. For example, searching relat* will pull results for relate, relationship, relates, related, and any other word that begins with relat.

5. Ask for Help

Librarians are here to help. Always feel free to ask questions about your research. We cna be reached via text, phone, email, chat, and in-person.

Discovery Search

Subject Databases

AGRICOLA This link opens in a new window
AGRICOLA encompasses all aspects of agriculture and allied disciplines, including animal and veterinary sciences, entomology, plant sciences, forestry, aquaculture and fisheries, farming and farming systems, agricultural economics, extension and education, food and human nutrition, agricultural engineering and technology and earth and environmental sciences.
Data.gov This link opens in a new window
Data.gov captures a variety of metrics on the participation of the 165 agencies and sub-agencies and 709 publishers that supply datasets to Data.gov. For a list of organizations and agencies that provide these data sets, visit data.gov/metrics
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) Database This link opens in a new window
An Environmental Impact Statement is a report required by the federal government that would detail the impacts from significant changes made to the environment. This includes records of all EISs received by the EPA since 1987, EPA comment letters on EISs since 2001, and electronic (PDF) versions of EISs received by EPA since October 2012.
Environment Complete This link opens in a new window
Environment Complete (created by the International Academy at Santa Barbara), Environment Index offers deep coverage in applicable areas of agriculture, ecosystem ecology, energy, renewable energy resources, natural resources, marine & freshwater science, geography, pollution & waste management, environmental technology, environmental law, public policy, social impacts, urban planning, and more.
EPA NSCEP This link opens in a new window
Search, retrieve, download, print, and order EPA technical, scientific, and educational materials from this site
ERIC This link opens in a new window
ERIC, the Educational Resource Information Center, provides access to education literature and resources. The database provides access to information from journals included in the Current Index of Journals in Education and Resources in Education Index. ERIC provides full text of more than 2,200 digests along with references for additional information and citations and abstracts from over 1,000 educational and education-related journals.
PubMed This link opens in a new window
PubMed is a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine that includes over 17 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals for biomedical articles back to the 1950s. PubMed includes links to full text articles and other related resources.
PubMed Central (full text archive) This link opens in a new window
PubMed Central is a free digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), developed and managed by NIH's National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) in the National Library of Medicine (NLM). With PubMed Central, NLM is taking the lead in preserving and maintaining unrestricted access to the electronic literature, just as it has done for decades with the printed biomedical literature.
UNdata This link opens in a new window
The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) launched a new internet based data service for the global user community.
WorldCat Dissertations and Theses This link opens in a new window
All dissertations, theses and published material based on theses cataloged by OCLC members, including all subjects.

Interlibrary Loan

Interlibrary loan is the borrowing of materials (books or photocopies) that are not found within the MUW collection for current faculty, staff, and students of Mississippi University for Women. Click "Request through Interlibrary Loan" to submit the request with your online account.