10 [Secondary] Research through databases

Research through databases

Below are a list of Doc’s preferred databases:

Also, the University of Iowa has its own collection of databases located on the University of Iowa library’s website. These are all free to read for students.

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You can search these databases with keywords to find articles or databases that are about the topic you are researching.

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Making sure that the database is a scholarly, reliable database is important. Databases can also pull up news articles and other sources, not just peer-reviewed sources; you often have the option to filter these kinds of materials out of your results. It is also important to evaluate the sources you get off of databases using the techniques we previously discussed. Let’s use an example of Doc MC’s favorite database. Clicking on the hyperlink above (see: “library’s website”), we are going to find the EBSCO database.

1. Click on E to locate the database.
2. Scroll down until you find the correct database, and click on the hyperlink.
3. From this page, you can choose which database you would like to search through. For our purposes, “Academic Search Elite” works just fine. From here, click on “continue”.
4. Here, you can enter in whatever keywords or important topics you would like to pull up articles related to that topic.
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5. You can also filter things out. One important box you may want to check is the “peer-reviewed” box. This way, you can get research that has been peer-reviewed. After selecting all your parameters, press “Search”.
6. From here, you can scroll and review all the results of your search. You can click on any articles of interest, review the abstract, and read the full PDF.