CRJ 324: Serial & Mass Homicide

Trying to access library resources online? Follow the instructions on the Online Access to Library Resources page to:

• access library databases, articles, and ebooks, both on-campus and off-campus
• troubleshoot error messages or other issues with accessing online sources from the library

Check out the library's self-paced tutorial How do I search library databases? to learn the basics of database searches.

1. What is Mardigian Search and why should I use it?

• Mardigian Search is the library's Discovery search box, which looks through all of the library's databases at once.
• Mardigian Search is great for:
  • finding out what's been studied in your research area
  • finding sources about interdisciplinary topics

2. How do I search for sources about my research topic?

• Identify the keywords of your topic and use those as your search words. 
• Each book and article has tags assigned to it, words or shorts phrases that make each book or article searchable
  • You want your search words to match those tags. 
  • Words like impact, effect, or factors are not used as tags\

3. I'm looking for a specific article or book. How do I find out if the library has it?

• Enter the title into the search box, removing all punctuation

4. How do I focus the search results to scholarly/peer-reviewed articles and books?

• Use Refine Your Search sidebar options to focus your search results
• Scholarly articles:and books
  • Check Peer Reviewed
  • Check Journal article, Book, and/or Book Chapter under Content Type

5. I have too many irrelevant search hits. How do I focus them?

• Use the options under Refine Your Search to focus your search hits
• Under Discipline, check the boxes beside relevant disciplines to focus your search results to those disciplines
• Under Subject Terms, check the boxes beside the subjects that interest you to focus your search results to your specific research areas of interest
• When you find an article that looks interesting, look at its assigned tags (subjects) 
  • Click on Quick Look below the article title
  • Look at its assigned Subjects/tags 
  • Add any relevant tags (words) to your search
  • This will also help you develop your research topics and search for books and articles for them

6. How do I know my search words match the tags assigned to sources about my research area?

• As you scroll through the search hits, look at the Subjects (tags) assigned to the relevant articles you find, and see if they match your search words 
• Subjects (tags) also help you identify the specific populations or issues in your research area

7. How do I preview the abstract/summary of articles in the list of search hits?

• Click on Quick Look below the article title

8. How do I access the article so I can read the whole thing?

• Click on Full Text Online
• Look for pdf Full Text or HTML Full Text links

9. I can't find anything on my topic. What do I do?

• The search words you're using to describe your topic may not match the tags that have been assigned to books and articles on that topic
  • Look through the Subject terms in the Refine Your Search sidebar and check the boxes beside the topic areas that interest you
• When you find an article that looks interesting, look at its assigned tags 
  • Add any relevant tags to your search
  • This will also help you develop your research questions and search for articles about your specific research questions 
• There may not be research tying your main ideas together yet
  • Try searching for your main ideas separately and linking their findings together
• If you've found one article that's relevant for your topic, look through the sources in its References list to see if any of them are also relevant to your research