How to search for articles
Library search will find journal articles, newspaper and magazine articles, book reviews and other content across a wide range of subjects. It is a great starting point for finding good quality resources on your topic and is a good alternative to Google Scholar. You can also use it to find a specific article.
The Library also offers access to a wide range of subject-specific databases.
Using the Articles specific search will limit your results to journal articles only.
Basic keyword searching
Enter the keyword(s) that describe your topic. You will be presented with a list of results which you can refine if necessary. On the left-hand side of the screen, you will see a list of possible ways to refine your search by content type, e.g. journal article, newspaper article, book review etc.
You can also refine by publication date or language. Your search terms can also include authors, individual titles, DOI, ISBN etc. If you are looking for a specific article enter as much information as you know.
Boolean operators – making your search more precise
You can use the Boolean operations: OR, NOT and AND. The operators must be written in ALL CAPS.
By default, all terms in a search are combined with the AND operator. This means that all results must have both of the terms include. To expand the results set, use the OR operator, e.g. microcircuits OR nanocircuits will return items that contain either term.
This also can be used with phrases such as “teacher education” OR “educator training”.
To exclude keywords, use the NOT operator or “-” character before a term. When used in the following query animal NOT dog the results will not include the term “dog”.
Wildcards
You can use wildcards “?” and “*” to find different forms of a word.
The question mark (?) will match any one character and can be used to find “Olsen” or “Olson” by searching for Ols?n.
The asterisk (*) will match zero or more characters within a word or at the end of a word. A search for “Ch*ter” would match “Charter”, “Character”, and “Chapter”. When used at the end of a word, such as “Temp*”, it will match all suffixes “Temptation”, “Temple” and “Temporary”.
Wildcards cannot be used as the first character of a search.
Phrase searching
To search for a phrase use quotation marks "" e.g. "teacher education".
Create a list/save your search
To save details of any individual articles click on the file image on the right-hand side.
When you have your full list you can access it by selecting the large folder at the top right hand side of the page. From here you can send to reference software, e-mail or print.
