LibGuides: Understanding Research: Search the Databases

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Research Consultations are live, one-on-one sessions that provide in-depth, high-level, and customized research assistance with a reference librarian.

Research Best Bets

Browse all of NU Library's databases on the A to Z database list.

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Content: Scholarly journals, academic content, periodicals and videos covering a broad range of academic disciplines.
Purpose: A good starting point for research with coverage across many disciplines and fields.
Special Features: Text-to-speech listening feature. Tool to help discover citing articles.
Help using this database.
Academic Video Online: Premium (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new window
Content: The most comprehensive video database covering more than 67,000 titles on anthropology, business, counseling, film health, history, music, and more.
Purpose: Curated for the educational experience of all types of library patrons.
ProQuest Central This link opens in a new window
Content: Collection of more than 30 Proquest subject-specific databases covering Business, Health and Medical, Social Sciences, Education, Science and Technology, and Humanities.
Purpose: Students can view a massive amount of peer-reviewed research across multiple disciplines.
Special Features: Includes a Thesaurus feature that assists in using the database’s controlled vocabulary, as well as read-aloud feature.
SAGE Journals This link opens in a new window
Content: Scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles only, in health science, biomedical science, engineering, social science, and the humanities.
Purpose: Use for scholarly research in most fields.
Special Features: Includes discipline hubs for browsing and citation search.

Search the Library

Search for articles, books, dissertations, and more

Using NavigatorSearch

Search with Connectors

To maximize your time and effectiveness in the research process, take advantage of some of the following search techniques that can be applied to many databases, including article databases, the library catalog, and commercial search engines.

Boolean Operators

Boolean searching involves connecting terms and concepts using the words AND, OR, and NOT in order to narrow or expand your search.

Use AND to connect different main concepts in your research question/topic and refine your search results (internet AND bullying).
Use OR to connect like terms or synonyms to expand your search results ("artificial intelligence" OR AI).
Use NOT to remove unwanted terms from your search results (biology NOT marine).

Search Like an Expert

Search Modifiers

Quotation marks can be used to tell the databases to search for exact phrases, names, and multi-word terms.

"artificial intelligence"
"Sigmund Freud"
"human immunodeficiency virus

Truncation is a technique used to broaden your search. Truncation searches multiple forms of a root word to include various word endings and spellings.

To use truncation, enter the base word and put the truncation symbol at the end (usually an *asterisk).
The results will include any ending of that root word.
Truncation symbols vary by database and website but are most commonly: *, !, ?
Example: child* = child, child's, children, childhood

Parentheses determine the order in which the database will search terms and Boolean Operators.

Searching for supply AND (chain OR network) will return results that include the word supply, plus either the word chain or the word network, or both.
Searching for car AND ("artificial intelligence" OR AI) will return results that include the word car, plus either the phrase artificial intelligence or the word AI, or both.