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Willis N. Hackney Library

Finding Articles by Searching Individual Databases

Sample Search of EBSCO's "Academic Search Complete" Database for a Magazine Article

Sample Search:

Topic:  Animal rights concerning the sport of horse racing

  • Search for horse racing in one box, and 
  • Search for animal rights in the second box:

This search returns 57 articles in magazines, journals, and newspapers.  Now limit this set to Full Text in the "Limit To" area in the left sidebar, and limit to Magazines in the "Source Types" area, both in the left sidebar of the results screen and circled in yellow in the image below.  This removes any non-full-text articles in newspapers or journals from your set:

Now you have 20 full-text magazine articles in your results list.  Choose Article #1, "Rough Ride,"  and click on the title, circled in yellow below:

Now you are taken to a Detailed Record for this magazine article, which gives you more information about it:

  • The title of the magazine article at the top (circled in aqua)
  • Authors:  The authors' names (this magazine article has two, while some magazine articles may have only one, or sometimes none!); they are circled in yellow;
  • Source:  The title of the magazine in which the article is published, plus the publication date, volume and issue numbers that correspond to that date, page numbers on which it appears in the magazine, and other information (circled in green)
  • Subject Terms:  Terms that describe the content of the article (and can be clicked on to do a brand new search tof find similar articles), circled in red

 

 

To see the full-text of the article, click on the HTML Full Text link in the top left of the detailed record, circled in orange.  (If there had been a PDF Full Text Link, that would be preferable, but we don't have that option here):

Here's the link to the article (scroll down to see the HTML full text):  https://login.proxy012.nclive.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=5013269&site=ehost-live

When you are reading the article itself, you will notice several things:

  • It is short in length
  • It has a color photo indicated at the end (although the photo doesn't show; only it's location is listed in the HTML version)

  • There are no references at the end of the article (which indicates it is not a scholarly source, since you don't know where the authors got their information from
  • The style and vocabulary of the article make it easy to understand for the average reader

All of these are typical characteristics of Magazine articles, which are a good choice when you are looking for a relatively current, easy-to-understand overview of or introduction to a particular topic, especially if you don't know very much about it yet.

To email the article to yourself with an automatically-generated citation in APA Style Email icon in the Tools sidebar on the right side of the screen, pictured below, circled in yellow:

 

On the screenshot below of the email pop-up, notice several things:

  • Your email address goes in the box circled in yellow
  • Any Subject you want to apply to the email for easy identification when it comes into your inbox can be put in the box circled in orange
  • On the right side circled in purple, you can designate the type of citation style you want created (click on the drop-down menu to select APA)
  • Once everything is complete, click the Send button, circled in green, to receive the full text of the article (usually as an attachment if it's a PDF, but as in this case, if it's HTML format, in the body of your message, along with the citation).

Note that the citation generated by the database MOST LIKELY WILL NEED SOME TWEAKING!  Do not just copy and paste it without double-checking it first!!

For example, notice the citation generated in MLA Style below:

  • Notice that everything is correct, except for the vendor name (circled in red) instead of the name of the database:  Academic Search Complete.  
  • Watch out for the need for these kinds of corrections in citations automatically generated by the databases.  They tend to include the following errors that need correction:
    • CAPITALIZATION errors
    • Italicization errors
    • Including more than the required information
    • Omitting some of the required information
    • Incorrect information

For more example to compare these citations to as templates, see the MLA Style Resources link in the left sidebar of this guide, especially Purdue OWL for plentiful examples.