To begin the tutorial, click here and then size the new window so that you can see both it and this window.

Academic Search Complete Tutorial

This tutorial relies on Javascript for some of it's functionality. For better functionality, please enable javascript if possible.

You are going to learn how to find articles using the UA Library index, Academic Search Complete.

Follow the directions below and fill in the blanks.

When you are finished, your can print out your answers.

Click on the question marks for hints and help as you work.

Last Name:

First Name:

The Assignment:

Step 1

Identify your research topic.

Ex 1: "How are women's roles in the family changing?"

Ex 2: "Has the Border Patrol been involved in violation of human rights?"

Ex 3: "What research has been done about Vietnam veterans and depression or post-traumatic stress?"

Write your research topic in the box below (if you don't have your own topic yet, use one of the sample topics above.)

Step 2

What are some keywords from your topic? You will use these later in your search.

Ex 1: women and roles and family and change

or mother* and family and role*

Ex 2: border patrol and human right*

or border patrol and civil right*

Ex 3: vietnam and veteran* and depression

or vietnam and veteran* and stress

The use of the asterisk * tells the computer to search for any endings to the word after the *. So you can get both singular
and plural forms of this word, as well as other endings.

Write your keywords in the box below --be sure to connect different terms with the word and.

Why use "and" between words?

Step 3:

In the window to the right, click on the Article & Database Searching (grouped under Search & Find)

Step 4:

Under "Popular All-purpose Databases," click on Academic Search Complete.

Off-campus users: If you do not use the UA campus VPN, you must enter your last name and CatCard number in order to connect. Read the directions "Connecting from off-campus" at the bottom of the Article and Database Searching page.

Step 5

You are now in Academic Search Complete.
Type the keywords that you listed for your topic in Step 2 in the search boxes. (If you do not remember your keywords, you can use the drop-down box above to go back.)

Should I check the "Full Text" box? No

My instructor says I can only use "research" or "scholarly" articles. What are those?

Click the Search button when you're ready.

Step 6

Look at your list of citations (records, or hits).

How many citations did you get?

the number of citations will be at the top of the
screen -- ex. 1 - 20 of 78

What if I didn't find enough citations?

What if I found too many citations?

Step 7

Read the titles and abstracts of some of your articles. Choose one journal or magazine article that looks like it could be useful for your topic. For this exercise, do not choose a newspaper article.

Because Academic Search Premier displays no more than 20 citations per screen, you may need to go to the next screen to find a good citation.

Click on the blue link to the article title to read the complete record for that article.

What is the title of the journal?

What is the title of the article?

What is the date of the article?

What are the volume and issue numbers, if any? Ex: v117, n6

What is the beginning page number?

Step 8

If your article is full text (this means an electronic version of the article is linked from Academic Search Complete), there will be a link, labeled either PDF full text, HTML full text or Linked full text. Not all articles are full text in Academic Search Complete.

Is your article full text?

Articles that are not full text in Academic Search Complete may be full text in another index or database or they may be owned by the Library and stored in paper or microfilm.

Even if your particular article today is full text, it is important for you to learn how to find articles in print journals.

Step 9

To find out if the UA Library owns your article, you need to look up the journal title in the catalog.

Here's an easy way to do this:

a) Click on the link labeled:
Search the UA Library Catalog.

b) The Search the UA Library Catalog links directly to the UA Library's Catalog and it will automatically search for the journal title. If the Library owns that journal, one or more records will be listed.

If you see this Your entry (xxxx-xxxx) would be here -- it means the library probably doesn't own the title.

See if the library own the journal title you are looking for. (If not, indicate "No" here and then skip to Step 11 below.)

c) Look at the catalog record for the journal title, look at the "Location" line. Which UA library owns the item?

d) Try to find the call number for the journal -- this can be tricky! See tips below

If the only location for the journal is Internet -- there won't be a call number. Write none in box below.
If the journal is bound (paper copy), the call number will begin with one or two letters, like this:
HF5001 .F6
If the journal is on microfilm, the call number will look like this:
MICROFILM 4825

Enter the call number of your journal:

Step 10

If an article you find is not full text and you need to find it in the library, use these instructions.

Step 11

If UA Library doesn't own the journal and if it is not full-text...

You can order the article through Interlibrary Loan (ILL) but it will take from 4-7 days to receive it. If you're interested in ILL, ask at the reference desk for help.

If you don't have time to wait, you can always do another search in Academic Search Complete (or another library index) for articles we do have.

Congratulations! You're done!

If your instructor has told you to turn in this assignment, use the "print" button below to prepare a copy you can print and turn in.