This tutorial will show you how to search Academic Search Complete, a large multidisciplinary database of articles, both scholarly and popular. So it has articles from academic journals, and also newspapers and magazines.
If you want to know more about the difference between these types of sources, need to know how to find databases on the CSI Library website, or if you first want to understand what a database is, please take a look at our guides on these topics on the Online Tutorial homepage.
Academic Search Complete is a good starting point for most research. After this tutorial,
Let's go! If you are off-campus, you will need to log in with your SLAS. Click on the arrow below to continue.
We'll start with a search. Let's say you are writing an essay on marijuana legalization.
We'll start simply with this concept to get an idea of the scope of information in this database. Type marijuana legalization in the top box and hit search.
How many results did you get?
Firstly, our topic is really broad. Maybe you want to focus just on the economic benefits of legalizing marijuana in one of the states that has done so, for example Colorado.
Next, you will want to brainstorm your search terms. It's helpful to do this in writing, not just in your head. Pull out the main concepts and any synonyms and related words from your research question or thesis statement. Words and phrases that come to mind are marijuana, legalization, decriminalization, economy, Colorado, incarceration, drug war, law enforcement, criminal justice reform etc.
Let's add one of these concepts to our search. Go ahead and type Colorado in the second box.
What happened to your results list?
We can still do a lot more to make our search more precise.
Look at all the limiting options on the left-hand side.
Academic Search Complete includes
This is where you can specify that you want one of those source types. You will eventually have assignments that will require peer-reviewed sources. Check that box to update your results.
You can also limit by date of publication by dragging the arrows beside the years.
Other useful limiters include full-text, subject, and publication. Try one that you think is relevant for your search.
Now, you are basically finished with your first search.
It's time to take a look at the results list, in the center.
There is a lot of information just here, before even opening an article. Obviously, you have the title of the paper.
What other useful information do you see?
Let's look at the first result. You can go ahead and click on the title to get to the detailed record, or if you want to save yourself some seconds, you can hover over the little magnifying glass to the right of the title.
Here we have some extra information- the abstract, or summary for the paper. We can quickly decide from here if this paper is worth looking at.
Click on the title to get to the detailed record for the paper.
Now we should be looking at the detailed record for the article. (If not, click on the title of the article.) If you are interested in reading it, the full text link is on the left side (may be html or pdf).
On the right side under Tools, you'll notice some icons. These are very useful! The most important are
That is a very quick look at searching in Academic Search Complete! Try some searches on your own.
If you ever have questions about finding resources, visit the Reference Desk in the Library to talk to a librarian. Or use the chat box on our home page 24/7.
Please take this short quiz to test your skills on using the Academic Search Complete database.
At the end of the quiz:
A). either print the results, or grab a screenshot, or take a photo of your results
or...
B). Enter your professor’s email address or enter your own and forward your results to your professor. Multiple emails will not work even though it says it does!
Academic Search Complete is a database where we can find:
What should I do if I get too many results in my first search?
Academic Search Complete contains articles from scholarly or academic sources and also newspapers and magazines.
How can I limit my search in Academic Search Complete?
When should I be confident that I've searched extensively for sources on my topic?
Please enter your name and email address to retrieve a copy of your completed quiz.
You can enter multiple email addresses separated by commas. If you are doing this for a class, you may need to enter your instructor's email address also.