Current Location: Section X - Identifying the Appropriate Databases -- Full Text Journal Articles (Electronic Periodicals)

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Course Documents

 

 

 

SECTION X

Identifying the appropriate databases – - Full Text Journal Articles (Electronic  Periodicals)

 

 

 

I.               Introduction:  Although less than a quarter of the journals presently provide full text articles over the internet, the number is rapidly increasing.  As they do, they save a lot of time for students by making the full text of an article available  on their home computers. 

 

All of the electronic journal databases can be accessed by links in several places among the Library web pages.  One, for example is the “Find Articles and More” link on the University Library Welcome page.

 

http://library.csun.edu/

 

University Library Welcome Page

When we use this link will arrive at the University Library Find Articles and More Page and be presented with a number of options.

 

University Library Find Articles and More Page

 

From the choices offered on this page we can select the “Full Text Articles” option.  This takes us to the University Library Full -Text Databases page.

 

(Another route to the same place, of course, is from the Communicative Disorders Distance Learners:  Databases and Document Delivery Page. )

 

                                      http://library.csun.edu/mhenry/de-comdis.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Communicative Disorders Distance Learners:  Databases and Document Delivery Page

 

Of the databases listed on the Full Text  page, THREE   are particularly relevant to research in Communication Disorders & Sciences.  There may, of course, be more.

 

http://library.csun.edu/pertext.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

University Library Full-Text Databases

 

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We can identify additional databases by using the “Search Jake” link on this Full Text Screen (see above).

 

 

University Library Full-Text Databases

 

 

 

The three most useful databases for our research, I believe for the present, are Academic Search Elite (Ebscohost, Infotrac (ASAP), and Lexis-Nexis (see above).  Each name in this list is a link, which when activated will take us to that particular database.

 

 

II.             Academic Search Elite (Ebscohost. The first choice links directly to the Academic Search elite (EbscoHost ) search page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here we can enter our search words using the Boolean strategy provided on the webpage.

 

Ebscohost Research Databases

 

 

Using these search words “alternative, augmentative devices,” we will get back around 137 citations.  It is helpful to note, however, that in Ebscohost, the truncation symbol is an “*” as it was in FirstSearch.  Hence, we can put in the search terms “alternat*,” “augment*,” and  “device*,” Using this strategy we will come up with 145. 

 

If we didn’t limit the search to Full Text, we could still identify the full text articles by an icon ().  In the interest of efficiency, however, we should first go down into the “Refine Search” folder and check off the “Full Text” limitation.

 

 

 

Ebscohost Research Databases

 

 

Using this strategy we may receive back only 41 citations, but they will all be Full Text references.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ebscohost Research Database Results

 

Clicking on the Title will link us to the full citation in which we can get in addition to the reference, such helpful information including the author’s name(s), relevant Subject Terms, an article Abstract, and an ISSN number etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ebscohost Full Citation

 

Once we have the citation on the monitor, we can do a number of things from the menu strip at the top of the screen. Among other things, we can print out the citation; or we can email it to our self, a friend, or our instructor (if it is part of the assignment);

We can also link to the full article itself from either the original citation or from the full citation by clicking on the Linked Full Text link.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ebscohost Full Citation

 

 

In most cases after two or more steps, the resulting Full Text link will be accessible in a PDF format from which we can obtain a Full Text printout of the article. This means, of course, that our computer must have the Acrobat Reader software to open the file.

 

Please go to www.adobe.com/acrobat to learn more about Acrobat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ebscohost Full Text Article

 

It still just seems amazing to me that we can do this all from our home computer.  I’m looking forward now to a future technology by which we can put on a headset attached to our computer and have this material transmitted to our brain while we sleep.  I believe that it  can be done because many of my students on campus seem to use that technique semi successfully in class.

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

III.  InfoTrac:  This database can be accessed as we did with EbscoHost, from the DE Com. Dis. Home page or the “Full Text Articles Available On-Line” Library page.

 

 

 

http://library.csun.edu/pertext.html

 

University Library Full-Text Databases

 

 

We might not see InfoTrac right away because it is nested in the title Expanded Academic ASAP.  But when we click on the Expanded Academic ASAP we get to the InfoTrac Search Page. 

 

 

 

 

InfoTrac Search Page

 

We should note that in Infotrac the truncation symbol is also “*.”   More information is available on this and other useful symbols in the Help Search link under the heading of “Wild Cards.” 

 

 

 

We will want perhaps to use a Keyword Search and to limit it to Full Text articles, but if we don’t they are still identifiable in the list of articles we receive by inclusion of the word “text” or  “text with graphics” as opposed to “abstract” which appears in the reference.

 

InfoTrac Search Results Page

                                          

 

 

 

 

Clicking on the article will bring an abstract (if there is one) and a copy of the full article. 

 

 

 

 

 

InfoTrac Search Full Text Page

 

Opportunities to print or email the article are provided by links in the left hand column.

 

 

 

 

IV.  Lexis-Nexis:   This database, which has full text articles, has traditionally been one of “the work horses” for research in Communicative Disorders.  I have, however found it of less value in recent years.  Nevertheless it is still worthwhile becoming familiar with .   Lexis Nexis is also reachable from the list of “Full Text Articles Available On-Line  (http://library.csun.edu/pertext.html). 

 

University Library Full-Text Databases

 

Here you can click on Lexis-Nexis link to get to their home page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LexisNexis Search Page (Quick Info)

 

There are many good source selections on the Lexis-Nexis home page including News, Medical and Reference.  For our example we will select the News at the top of the list.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LexisNexis Search Page (News & News Categories)

 

 

On the News page there are additional choices within the news Category.  We will select for this example, the General News category, and the type of publication:  major newspapers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LexisNexis Search Page (News)

 

 

Before we start our search, however, let me draw your attention to a few helpful features.  There are a number of good suggestions available in the “Tips” section in the upper right hand corner.  Of particular interest will be the “Wild Cards” discussion, which explains the use of the truncation symbols (*) and (!).

 

Again we are provided with a Boolean operator format in which to place our search words.  For example, using the operator “and” between the keywords “augment*” and “communicat*” and “device*,” we will conduct a search for Full Text articles over a period of ten years.  This will give us a yield of 34 Full Text Articles.  None of the articles, however are relevant to our topic in this case (Yikes, I hate when that happens !!!), which indicates that we need to perhaps select a different search strategy and/or key words.  We could, for example, switch the search parameters to Medical Abstracts, and the keywords to assistive and technology.  We can narrow the search by including the terms “speech” and  “disabled” and “communication.”  We can also select Medline References from the Source List, and search all available dates.

 

 

LexisNexis Search Page (Medical Abstracts)

 

 

For these search terms and parameters there were eleven relevant documents found. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LexisNexis Search Page(Results)

 

 

 

Clicking the cursor on the Title will take us to the Full Text version (in this case, because we are using the Medical Abstracts Database, the full text will be of an abstract.)

 

 

As before, once I have the article, I have the option to print, save, or to E-mail it to my self or someone else. 

 

If Lexus Nexis has not been as powerful a source in recent years as we might wish, there is another database, LLBA, which has risen greatly in its usefulness.  This is not a full text database so we will conclude by discussing this database in our next and last chapter.