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 or question?
- Identify the keywords of your thesis statement 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 causes, effects, issues, outcomes, relationships are usually not used as tags - don't include them as search words
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 my search hits to articles from peer-reviewed journals?
In the Refine Your Search sidebar:
- Check Peer Reviewed
- Check Journal Article under the Content Type heading
5. I have too many search hits. How do I focus my search hits so that they're more relevant?
- Check Law and Sociology under Discipline to focus search hits to those relevant to criminal justice
- Click on Quick Look under the article title when you find an article that looks interesting
- Look at its assigned Subjects (tags)
- Add any relevant subjects to your search
- This will also help you develop your research topics and search for books and articles about them
6. How do I preview the abstract/summary of articles in the list of search hits?
- Click on Quick Look below the article title to look at the abstract of the article
7. 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
8. How do I use the search results to focus to my research topic?
- Look at the list of Subjects under Refine Your Search and see what interests you
- Check the boxes beside the subjects that you're interested in
- When you see articles that look interesting, look at their tags and add those to your search
9. I can't find anything about 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 Subjects listed 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 Subjects (tags)
- Add any relevant subjects/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
