How do I word my search to find articles?
Answer
Articles can be found using OneSearch or the University Library's subscription databases.
For a list of databases by topic/subject/field/discipline go to http://csulb.libguides.com/az.php
1. Choose database(s) appropriate to the subject you need articles on.
2. Search for the words of your topic, combining the various aspects of your topic, e.g.
(dog or dogs or canine*) and (food or feeding or nutri*)
(beauty or "body image" or "physical appearance") and ("social media" or twitter or instagram* or facebook)
A and B -- the 'and' means that both terms are required.
A or B or C --- the 'or' means that any one of the terms is acceptable, i.e., or means options.
the * (asterisk) is a truncation symbol, and means that you want any form of the word which starts with that root, e.g., nutri* (see above) will retrieve nutrition, nutrient, nutrients, nutritional, etc. If the root of the word you wish to search is very short, e.g., dog (above), it may be simpler to search the singular (dog) and the plural (dogs) separately, otherwise you may retrieve unwanted terms, such as Dogon or dogma or dogmatic.
the "quote marks" require that the phrase enlosed within them be searched in just that order, thus "body image" (see above) will search just for the phrase "body image". For example, "long beach" will search for "long beach" and not "beach long" or "the long and sandy beach" but only the two words (long and beach) in that specific order.
3. Modify the search retrieval, if desired, by dates of publication, language of publication (some databases include non-English language materials), academic/scholarly, etc.
4. Retrieve articles: some articles are Full-text within some databases, others must be retrieved by using the Get it @ CSULB link to full-text in other databases. If CSULB does not have it at all, you may be able to get a copy by requesting it through the CSU+ service.