Tips to Limit Database Results to U.S.-Based Content
Here are helpful tips on how to limit library database results to domestic or United States-published sources. You will see different ways to refine your search, such as using quotes to search for phrases, limiting by language, and making an assessment based on English language content. Also demonstrates how to limit resources in specific databases, like EBSCO, and how to use geographical options to search for United States-based content. While these methods are not foolproof, they can help narrow down your search and find resources from a USA perspective.
0:00 Introduction
0:32 Discovery Search
2:22 Database Search
4:55 Google Scholar Search
Waggoner Library provides access to the latest research including over 200,000 eBooks, 90,000 print books; several thousand streaming video files; local, regional, national & international newspapers; hundreds of thousands of full-text journal and magazine articles, trade publications, and doctoral dissertations are all part of the library's collection.
Online access is 24/7. The library website and online catalog provide access to all library collections, resources, and services. Click the tabs above to learn more or click one of the multidisciplinary databases listed below to get started.
A multidisciplinary database covering many subjects with content from journal articles, newspaper resources, magazines, and audio & video files.
As of Nov. 1, 2021 ProQuest Central will no longer be accessbile.
Use our new databases, All EBSCO Databases, Academic Search Ultimate (ASU), and EBSCOhost resources for broad journal research. Click here to begin your research in the All EBSCO Database.
If you are looking for ProQuest articles saved into RefWorks, click the related tab above for information about locating the full text of the article.
The A-Z Databases webpage is the comprehensive listing of all databases subscribed to by Waggoner Library.
Primary EdD databases include:
A multidisciplinary database covering many subjects with content from journal articles, newspaper resources, magazines, and audio & video files.
What if an article does not have full text?
1. Use the E-Journals by Title Search
2. Search Google Scholar by putting the article title within quotation marks. Many times, a PDF or HTML option for an article can be found at no cost on Google Scholar.
3. Check open-source scholarly databases to see if there is a full-text option:
4. Journal Article requests can be made through the Interlibrary Loan link on the library homepage
View Discovery Search: Books tutorial below to learn more.
Waggoner eBook collections are accessed through the library website where all titles are integrated into search results. Use the filter option to limit results to eBooks only.
As convenient as eBooks are, they are not perfect and restrictions exist. Copyright and Digital Rights Management (DRM) limits how they can be accessed and downloaded. Click here for the eBook Research Guide to see details like creating an account, printing, or how to check out an eBook title. The guide will take you through the process of viewing eBooks here at Trevecca and highlight restrictions you are likely to encounter and the best way to manage these problems.
NEVER download a library eBook for a class assignment unless you see that it has 'UNLIMITED USE'!
If you don't see that information you need to assume the title has LIMITED use. This means once it has been downloaded it is NO LONGER viewable online - prohibiting anyone else in your class from use of the book.
To complete your assignment you can create a PDF for a page range and email that to yourself. Federal copyright law has a limit of 60 pp but some publishers (Baker Books) have a limit of 12 pp at one time. You can log in again to retrieve additional pages. Consider downloading chapter PDFs or books in advance subject to availability for your institution.
Download instructions are available here:
Internet browsers do make a difference. Firefox users may need to adjust the browser settings to open PDFs within the browser. To adjust the Firefox browser settings:
Statista.com is one of the first statistic portals in the world to integrate data on over 80.000 topics from over 18.000 sources onto a single professional platform. Categorized into 21 market sectors, Statista.com provides the academic community, companies, and research institutions with direct access to quantitative data on media, business, finance, politics, and a wide variety of other areas of interest or markets. Below is an example of an infographic from Statista.
You will find more statistics at Statista
Learn more about Statista from this introductory video.
Films on Demand is a collection of streaming videos from several publishers including Films for the Humanities, PBS, BBC, & other documentary producers.
Jump here to search Films on Demand.
Go MOBILE!
Note: Users must sign in with your TNU username and password to access the videos on the Films On Demand app.
If you have saved citations in your RefWorks library exported from ProQuest Central, the full-text is no longer available. However, there are avenues to obtain the full text for these citations. Once you have the full-tex PDF, you can upload that into RefWorks, where it will be fully readable.
1. Copy the article title and search it in the library Discovery Search. That’s the search box on the library homepage. Apply the filters for library and format. If the article is available in another database, it will be listed there. Be sure to check the pub date against the holding dates. There will be links to access the text.
2. Search for the journal in the E-Journals by Title section found under the Find Information link on the library homepage top menu. Looking here will let you know if we have the journal accessible in another resource.
3. Open Google Scholar, and enter the article title in the search box. If full text is available, it will have links to the full text.
4. Interlibrary Loan (ILL). You can always request an article reprint through an interlibrary loan at no cost to you. The article comes as a PDF to your email. Use the form found here-https://library.trevecca.edu/interlibraryloan
What is Peer Reviewed?
Many writing assignments require students to use "research," "scholarly," "peer-reviewed," or "referred" journals. These terms are often used interchangeably, although "peer reviewed" is the clearest and most specific way to designate this type of publication.
Start by viewing this YouTube video Scholarly vs. Popular Periodicals, to see and understand the differences between scholarly journals, trade publications, and general magazines.
Peer-reviewed or Referred journals are many scholars' most important sources of information. These journals do not publish an article unless it is recommended by other scholars/experts. Often this recommendation must be made blindly, without the reviewer knowing who the author is.
A "research" article will almost always appear in a peer-reviewed journal. These are articles in which the author(s) report the research results they have conducted. They are one of several types of articles that such journals routinely publish.
Most of our databases have the option to limit search results to peer-reviewed journals. See the examples below from Discovery search, Gale's Academic OneFile, and EBSCO Business Source Ultimate to show you where to limit a search to peer-reviewed articles
Discovery Search for journal articles
Gale Databases showing Academic OneFile - this location is the same in all Gale Databases
EBSCO Databases showing Business Source Ultimate - this location is the same in all EBSCO Databases
The foundational search methods described below can be applied as you need them to narrow your topic, hone in on specific content, or identify related terms and relationships. They can be applied in the library Discovery search, databases, Google Scholar, or general search engines.
Keywords
Discovering the right combination of keywords for your research topic takes time. It's a process. You may use one group of words first and then try another group of related words or phrases all in the search process to find the right combination that fits your topic direction. Below you'll see suggestions to maximize keyword searching.
Use Boolean to focus your search.
Prince George's Community College
Using Punctuation to Change Results
Truncation means adding a symbol to a word that will change your results. Most of the database help pages will list the truncation symbols that can be applied to a search. These are common symbols in use:
Subject Headings
Review the subject headings found in relevant articles from library databases. Subject headings are official terms that are usually clickable either from the result list or from the full record seen after you click on the source's title. Using these to guide your search helps to focus the results.
Filters are found in Discovery search, library databases, and search engines. They are ways you can narrow down or focus your search results on retrieving the most relevant resources.
| Date range |
You may want to limit the search results you're seeing based on when they were published. For example, evidence-based medicine often involves looking at research from the last five years, while a project taking a historical perspective will want to include work going further back in time. |
| Language |
Consider limiting your search results to just those published in languages that you can read research in. (Note: your professor/advisor may have additional language restrictions, so if you're including research in multiple languages make sure that works for them too.) |
| Source Type |
Literature reviews usually rely rather narrowly on various scholarly or academic sources rather than the full spectrum of sources available to you. Consider limiting your results to Academic or Scholarly articles. |
| Article Type |
Sometimes you just need a systematic review, empirical study, or another form of research. Subject-specific databases will almost always offer a way to narrow down your results by methodology (article type). When the filter isn't available, you can add your method of choice as an additional keyword! |
Search alerts can save valuable research time and can be set up to provide automatic e-mail notifications whenever new search results become available. You can also retrieve those alerts to perform the search immediately instead of waiting for the alert to run.
Databases:
You must create a free account in the database to save your customized search alert that will automatically run based on your set parameters.
EBSCOhost is the platform for the library's primary multidisciplinary database, Academic Search Ultimate. Learn more about effective ways to search and find results in this premiere database.
For more comprehensive searching use the All EBSCO Database link which searches across our EBSCO collections.
EBSCO Databases have a new search interface! See how the new search interface is more intuitive and streamlines your research in the video below! 
Check out the mobile app that makes searching on the go easy!
Learn how to apply citation tools to an article. Citation style options include APA, Chicago, and MLA.
Full-text availability is shown under the abstract for the record in the result list. Options are HTML or PDF formats.
Academic Search Ultimate is one of many EBSCO databases that are part of the library collection. The search interface is the same for each database but limit and search options vary, e.g., subject terms vary in the different databases. The information below is specific to Academic Search Ultimate (ASU).
To search ASU: To begin by entering search terms in the boxes provided. Best practices include:
Result List: Setting Limits and Refining Search Options
The result list is displayed in a sort default of Relevance. You can change the sort option by clicking the down arrow at the top right. Sort by most pub date newest or oldest, alphabetically by source or author, and relevance.
Defaults
Apply Equivalent Subjects is a default designed to broaden your search results using a mapped vocabulary pulled from multiple high-quality vocabularies used for indexing content. e.g. A search for 'workplace injury' will also find "workplace injuries." This can be turned off by clicking the x near the term.
Limits
Limiter examples include:
