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 articles about my topic or research question?
- Identify the keywords of your argument 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 factors, effects, issues, relationships, impact are usually not used as tags - don't include them as search words
- Example topic: What is the gendered impact of financial crises in developing countries?
- A search about this topic could be: gender* financial cris?s "developing countries"
- gender* searches for gender and gendered
- cris?s searches for crisis and crises
- "developing countries" searches as a phrase, not two separate words
3. I have too many search hits. How do I focus them to meet my assignment requirements?
- Use Refine Your Search on the sidebar in results to focus your hits so they're more relevant to your assignment needs
- You can focus your search hits to:
- peer-reviewed or scholarly articles
- content type, such as journal articles, books, newspapers, or magazines
- discipline, sources relevant to specific disciplines
- subject terms, to help you focus your topic and sources to specific subject areas of interest
- publication date, so you get the most recent research
- language, such as just English articles
4. I have too many irrelevant search hits. How do I focus them to more relevant research areas?
- Under Subject Terms, click on More... to open a list of all Subject Terms
- Click on the subjects that interest you to add them to your search
- Scroll to the top of the list of Subject Terms and click on Apply
- When you find an article that looks interesting, look at its assigned tags (words)
- Click on Preview below the article description
- 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
5. How do I know my search words match the tags assigned to articles 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
6. How do I preview the abstract/summary of articles in the list of search hits?
- Click on Preview below the article description
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 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
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/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
