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 empirical articles about my sociological problem?
- Identify the main ideas of your sociological problem and use those as your search words
- Each article has tags assigned to it, words or shorts phrases that make them searchable - you want your search words to match those tags
- Words like influences, effects, challenges, impacts, causes are usually not used as tags - don't include them as search words
- Example: Strict voter ID card requirements create inequality by reducing voter participation in elections among disenfranchised groups
- Search: voter id* election* inequality
- id* searches for ID and identification
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 articles that meet the Inequality Paper requirements?
- Use the Refine Your Search sidebar to focus your search hits
- Empirical articles:
- Checkn Peer Review
- Check Journal article under Content Type
- Social Science/Sociology focus
- Check law and sociology & social history under Discipline
- Current research
- Under Publication Date, move the scroll bar over to 2010 to present
5. How do I use the search hits to focus my sociological problem?
- Look at the list of Subject Terms under Refine Your Search and see what interests you
- Check Subject Terms you're interested in
- When you see articles that look interesting, look at their tags and add those to your search
6. How do I know my search words match the tags assigned to articles about my research question?
- 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 issues around your topic so you can give it direction and develop it into a focused research question
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. How do I find articles that have cited an article I find in Mardigian Search?
- Web of Science
- Look for the Web of Science: [number] box to the right of your search hits - click on the number to get a list of articles that have cited your article
- If you don't see the Times Cited number, you need to connect to UM-Dearborn VPN. Follow the ITS VPN Setup Instructions to install VPN and go to the ITS VPN Troubleshooting page if you have any trouble installing or using VPN.
- To read the articles you identified as relevant in Web of Science:
- Enter the target article title in the above Mardigian Search box
- Click on the Full Text Online link or or the article title to access the full text of the article from the list of search hits
10. 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/subjects
- 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
- Ask your course professor or the Criminology and Sociology Librarian, Nadine Anderson, for help
