POL 151 Section 001 - International Relations

This video will show you how to navigate EBSCO databases like Academic Search Complete. The database in the walkthrough is Criminal Justice Abstracts, and therefore the search results will focus on crime, but the functionality of the database is the same no matter which one you use.

**This walkthrough should help you use Milner's Article Search to find articles. If you need more help, go the Finding Books tab and watch the video on that page, starting at 3:00.**

Start your search using the Articles tab. Keywords can be entered either in the basic search box or by clicking the Advanced Search link.

This search will take you to a new page. Make sure Advanced Search is selected to view all the available search options.

1. The first section shows which part of the library you are searching. The Articles button lets you looks journal articles without specifying a subject-specific database. 

2. Just below is the actual search box. It works the same way as every other search box.

• Enter keywords into the search boxes. Separate subtopics between boxes, connecting them with AND.
• Any Field dropdown box identifies where in the records the catalog will search when retrieving results. It is formatted as a keyword search by default, but you can change this to title, author, etc.
• Contains identifies how the catalog will treat the keywords within the box. The default asks the catalog to find keywords in no particular order. Use quotation marks in this case if you want an exact phrase. Alternative options may be too specific to get accurate search results unless you include a specific known phrase.

3. The Add a New Line option creates a new set of boxes if you have a more specific search that requires more boxes.

4. This last section will let you specify the type of material you want. To ensure the results only show journal articles, change this first dropdown box to Articles. You can also limit to a specific language or publication date in this section.

Once you decide on the search criteria, click search and you will get search results. 

1. Each item will list the citation information: the article title, material type, author, journal title, volume and issue number. 

2. Underneath the citation information will be a selection pulled from the abstract to give an idea of the article's content.

3. The bottom of each record indicates whether an article is peer reviewed, if it comes from a freely accessible journal, and if the article is directly available in the database.

4. There is a list of filters on the right side of the page. Some specific filters you may want to pay attention to:

• Expand My Results - Expands your search to articles that are not directly available through Milner's various databases. Selecting this button will show you articles you can request through interlibrary loan.
• Availability - This is the filter that will let you limit to just peer reviewed content or just items directly available in the database
• Subject - This will let you see the database-created subject terms that describe each item's content
• Resource Type - Will let you limit results just to a specific type (articles, reviews, online book chapters, etc.)
• Collection - Will let you specify a particular database
• Journal Title - Will let you limit your results to just articles from a specific publication

Clicking the title will take you to the full record.

1. Scroll down to see how to access the item. Clicking the button under Full text availability will open a PDF of the item. There may be several options if the item is available in multiple databases.
2. Scrolling lower will show the citation information, subjects, and abstract for the item.

Found an article you like that Milner doesn't have access to? No problem! Watch this video to see how to request it (for free) through interlibrary loan.