You are going to learn how to find articles using the UA Library database, Academic Search Complete.
To start, please enter your email address:
This will allow you to send your results via email.
If you are doing this tutorial as a class assignment and you need to have the results emailed to your instructor, go to Step 1.
If you doing the tutorial for your own learning, use the drop down arrow above to go to Step 2.
Follow the directions below and fill in the blanks.
Be sure to pick your instructor's name in the box below. When you are finished, your answers will be sent to your instructor.
Click on the question marks for hints and help as you work.
If you have any questions or problems with this assignment, email Leslie Sult (UA Librarian):
sultl@u.library.arizona.edu
Choose your instructor's name from the list below — make sure your instructor's name is highlighted.
Select one Derek Adams Beth Alvarado Jo Anne Behling Brett Applegate Jane Benacquista Alison Betts Laura Bivona Rebecca Blakiston Rebecca Bliquez Sean Bottai Jim Bowman Stephen Brooks David Buchalter Denise Burgess Matt Burkhart Jessica Burstrem Russel Buyok Martiza Cardenas Rosanne Carlo Erica Cirillo-McCarthy Matthew Conley Amy Cook Daniel Crumbo Adrienne Crump Barbara Cully Marlowe Daly-Galeano Zaheer Dauwer Jennifer DeWinter Al Dixon Andrew DuMont Leslie Dupont Isaac Eldridge Bill Endres Crystal Fodrey Sonja Fordham Jeremy Frey Meg Gillio Jean Goodrich Kindall Gray Debra Gregerman Greg Grewell Jennifer Haley Chris Hamel Jason Herman Seth Holler Ashley Holmes Annie Holub Sara Howe Katherine Hunt Todd Jansen Jay Jessee LingXia Jin Kara Johnson Les Jones Regina Kelly Tammie Kennedy Cindy Knapp Mike Kolakoski Drew Kopp Sarah Kortemeier Andrew Krewer Sasha Kuchuk Faith Kurtyka Jonathan LaGuardia Julie Lauterbach Meagan Lehr Jake Levine YingLiang Liu Laura Lunsford Daylanne Markwardt Londie Martin Aretha Matt Alison McCabe Kim McClure Maureen McHugh Ted McLoof Cruz Medina Tim Meloni Yvonne Mery Angel Miller Vicki Mills Chris Minnix Kristin Mock Tim Murphy Kerry Murray Carol Nowotny-Young Tom Nurmi Katie O'Donnell Diana Olivares Heather Ordover Kathryn Ortiz Lisa O'Neill Amy Parziale Ryan Paul Will Pewitt Glen Piskula Jennifer Powlette Ben Quick Ruth Reiniche Charles Renno Ben Ristow Alex Rivera Nahal Rodieck Dana Drake Rosenstein Esme Schwall Sam Schwartz Jake Seliger Leta Sharp George Shelton Grant Shreve Jessica Shumake Katherine Silvester Leslie Sult Mika Taylor Reena Thomas Erec Toso Elise Verzoza Jonathon Walter Ashley Warren Rachael Wendler James Wermers Maggie Werner Jennifer Wiley Clay Williams Jacob Witt Mary Woo Paul Woodford Cassie Wright Yi Xu Cesar Yescas Elizabeth Zaleski Stephanie Zielinski Joshua Zimmerman
Your Last Name:
Your First Name:
Go to Step 3.
Follow the directions below and fill in the blanks. When you are finished you can email the results to yourself.
Go to Step 4.
Identify your research topic.
Ex 1: "How are women's roles in the family changing?"
Ex 2: "Does advertising influence teenage behavior?"
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.)
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: teen* and advertising and influence
or teen* and advertising and behavior
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 of the word, singular, plural, or any other endings. Ex: teen* = teen, teens, teenager, teenagers. Write your keywords in the box below --be sure to connect different terms with the word and.
Why use "and" between words?
Go to Steps 5 & 6.
In the window to the right, click on the Article & Database Searching (grouped under Search & Find)
Under "Popular All-purpose Databases," scroll down and click on Academic Search Complete.
Off-campus users: you must enter your UA NetID and password in order to connect.
Go to Step 7.
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 - because you may miss a good article.
My instructor says I can only use "research" or "scholarly" articles. What are those?
Click the Search button when you're ready.
Go to Step 8.
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 center column) ex.: All Results: 1 - 20 of 78
Notice that you can use the links in the right column to sort your results by Academic Journals, Magazines, Newspapers, etc. This is a nice feature to use when you need to locate scholarly or academic articles.
What if I didn't find enough citations?
What if I found too many citations?
Go to Step 9.
Read the titles of some of your results. For the ones that seem promising, hover your cursor over the magnifying glass to see the abstract.
Choose one article citation. For this tutorial, choose an academic journal or magazine article, not a newspaper article. Because Academic Search Complete displays no more than 20 citations per screen, you may need to go to the next screen to find a good journal citation.
Click on the blue link to the article title to see the full record for that article. Fill in the important parts of the citation on Step 10.
Go to Step 10.
Click on the blue link to the article title to see the full record for that article. Fill in the important parts of the citation:
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 are the page numbers?
Go to Step 11.
Academic Search Complete does a nice job of showing you how to cite articles in several different citation styles, including MLA.
When you have the full record open, you will see six icons for different functions at the top right of the record. Select the one for cite and cut and paste the MLA citation for your article in the box below.
Now close the citation examples box.
Go to Step 12.
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?
Choose answer yes no not sure
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.
If you got your article full text, go to Finish.
If you didn"t get your article full text, go to Step 13.
If your article is not full-text in Academic Search Complete, click Get Full Text or Document Delivery. Sometimes Article Linker will link directly into the full-text of the article.
Did you get to the full-text of your article? (If not, indicate "No".)
If your did not get to the article in full-text through Article Linker, you can Ask a Librarian for help.
You can come to or call the Information Commons Reference Desk at 621-6442.
You can do a Chat or IM reference session with a librarian. This opens in a new window.
We can help you get any article you are looking for. Never pay for an article you find on the Internet, always ask the library and we can get it for you for free.
Go to Finish.
Congratulations! You're done!
Send results to your instructor, if you selected one, and to yourself:
Questions? Problems? Email Leslie Sult (UA Librarian) for help: sultl@u.library.arizona.edu
Want to evaluate this tutorial? (Optional)
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