Learn more about using keywords from California State University, San Bernardino:
Library databases will give you instant access to thousands of sources, including biographical information, newspaper articles, business reports, and magazines and journals. While some databases cover ebooks, images, or films, most focus on articles. Here is a sample of library databases that may be helpful for this subject area.
Serious science. Peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and open access content covering scientific, technical, and medical research. Psychology journals included.
Science, a peer-reviewed academic journal, covers all science-related topics in general level presentations and highly-scientific terms. From July 1880 to the present.
Peer-reviewed scholarly journals and magazines related to science, social sciences and humanities. Easy search tools help you find images, videos, news, and books too! Audio files often included. APA and MLA citations provided.
Full-text magazines, journals, and other resources most of which are peer-reviewed. Wide range of subjects. A great place to start most research projects. Images and videos accompany most topics. Citations provided.
Full-text magazines, reference books and primary source documents including video, photos, maps and flags. Some trade publications for workers in various professions. Citations provided.
Use connector terms, called Boolean Operators, when you want to combine search terms. There are three main Boolean operators: AND, OR, and NOT. Very briefly, here's how they work:
You'll probably find yourself using AND or OR the most when searching the databases, but it's helpful to know how all three work in case you ever need to create a more complex search.
Use quotation marks to help you search for an exact phrase. This technique narrows your search. For example, using the phrase "sleep disorders" (with quotation marks) makes sure your search results will have that exact phrase somewhere in your results. Other examples:
"virtual environment" "cost benefit analysis" "social media"
Use truncation to search for different endings of the same root word, or to replace letters. To search for all alternate endings of a word, search with the root of the word and then an asterisk*.
Pollut* - This search will find all variations of the word, including pollute, pollutes, polluted, pollution.
Using the truncation strategy can help speed up your searching.