EGS 215 (O'Hara): Finding Sources

You can search all of the article sources from EBSCOHost together by clicking the title of one of them, such as Academic Search Complete, and then following the instructions below.

Click the blue “Choose Databases” link above the text entry boxes at the top of the screen. Place a check in the box next to each of the databases you want to add on the popup window. Click OK at the top or bottom of the popup window. Then enter your search terms and click the search button.

After you click on a blue article title in your results list, you will be taken to a new page with more detailed information about that specific article. This includes an abstract, or summary, of the article. Reading the abstract is a quick way to determine whether the article answers your research question or not. If it does, you should look in the top left corner of the screen for a link that says "Full Text."

Clicking that link will give you the full contents of the article rather than only the summary available on the current page. When there is no "Full Text" link in that corner, use the yellow "Find It!" button to search for the full text in other databases. See more about Find It! in the box to the right in this guide.

The vertical toolbar on the right side of the page gives you options for what to do with the article. There are icons to:

• Save the article to your Google Drive. Be sure that you select "Open with Google Docs" when you open it in Drive or it will look like unreadable html code. Also, what you save will be the info available on the article abstract page, not the full text of the article. However, there should be a link back to the database page with the full text link in the Google Doc.
• Print the article. This costs $.10/page at all Miami University printers. Additional information about printing at Miami University is available on this page.
• Email the article to yourself. 
• Get a citation for the article in various formats. Scroll to the format you are using (MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.). Highlight, copy, and paste the article citation from this page into your paper. Some of the required formatting does not copy over correctly (hanging indent, sometimes italics, sometimes portions appear in all caps when they should not, etc.). You will need to manually correct these mistakes, so be sure to compare your pasted citations to some of the sample citations I linked to on the Citing Sources tab of this guide.

If you see links that say “PDF Full Text” or “HTML Full Text”, clicking on those will take you to the full text of the article. Then, on the right-hand side of the page, you’ll see options to:
--download/save the article (blue arrow in the screenshot),
--print the article (red arrows in the screenshot),
--email the article to yourself (yellow arrow in the screenshot), and
--get the citation information for the article (green arrow in the screenshot).

After you click the icon to get the citation, you can highlight, copy, and paste the APA-formatted citation into your document. Always be sure to double-check your copied citations, though. Sometimes formatting, such as italics and hanging indents, aren’t correct. Information is typically in the correct order, but good to double-check that as well.

Find books and other materials owned by the Miami University Libraries by using the...

Miami University Online Catalog

Search By: Keyword
Limit By: General Topic and Where The Item is Located
Look For: Call Number, Location, and Availability
Request Item from other MU Libraries

Click on the title of an item to find out more information about that item and to get the citation for that item. To find the citation, click on the icon that looks like a yellow piece of paper and says "Cite" when you hover over it. In the box that opens, scroll to find the citation in the style you need, and you can highlight, copy, and paste that into your references page. Always be sure to double-check your copied citations, though. Often, formatting such as italics and hanging indents, are not pasted over correctly. You will need to do some manual reformatting to ensure that you receive full credit for this portion of your assignment. 

Change Date Range: by sliding the rule under "Publication Date" or by typing in specific years in the boxes. (red box in screenshot) Your results list will then only include items that were published within your specified date range.

Get Only Ebooks: In the left-hand column, click on the arrow next to "Material Type" and then check the box next to "eBooks". (red arrow in screenshot)

Continue Searching in OhioLINK for unavailable titles. OhioLINK allows you to request books from college and university libraries all over the state of Ohio.

Some databases include the full text of the articles described in the them. However, most databases do not. When the database does not have the full text of an article, you should see a yellow Find It button like the one above. 

Clicking this button will search through other databases that Miami subscribes to looking for the full text. If a different database has it, you will see a link to it on the new tab that opens.

If there is no full text link on the new tab, you should see a link to a form for a service called interlibrary loan (ILL). If you fill out this form, the library will try to find the article from another library on your behalf. This can take several days, however, so if you need the article right away, it is not a good option for you.