Tutorials

Hello! This video tutorial will demonstrate how to find and read articles through the library database Academic Search Complete.

To access library databases, click the gray Databases button on the library website.

Academic Search Complete is the first database listed in the Library's Recommended Databases. Academic Search Complete is a good starting place to find full-text journal, magazine, and newspaper articles, with a broad range of topics. To access this database, click its title.

If prompted to log in, your username is your SF ID number @sfcollege.edu. On the next screen, enter your college password. You may not see this screen if you are already logged in to Office 365 elsewhere.

This is Academic Search Complete's advanced search screen. Use the search boxes at the top of the screen to look for articles about your topic. When searching in a database, use as few words as possible, and put different concepts in different boxes. For example, if you were researching gun control in the United States, you would put gun control in the first search box and United States in the second search box.

The main search screen also provides a few ways to limit your search. The default is to limit your search to only full text. This means limiting only to articles that can be read immediately. The Full Text box should already be checked and should stay checked for most searches. To limit your search to peer-reviewed articles, check the Peer Reviewed box. If you need to limit your results to more recent articles, you can use the Published Date limit on the search page. For instance, you may need to limit to articles that were published within the last five years. Once you have set up your search, click the Search button.

The number of search results is listed below the search boxes. The results list contains basic information about each article. The title of the article is in blue.

Icons next to each result indicate the type of source it is from. Academic Journal and Periodical are the two most common icons. Academic journal means that the article is from a scholarly journal. Periodical indicates that the article is from a magazine or trade publication.

For a quick look at more information, hover your mouse over the magnifying glass icon directly next to the article's title.

This displays a pop-up window with information about the article, including the source, which is the magazine or journal it was published in, and an abstract, which is a summary of the article. To see more information about an article, click its title to display the detailed record.

The detailed record contains subject terms that describe the content of the article. You can use these subject terms to improve your search results. To read the full article, click one of the full text links on the left. For this article, there are options for either HTML Full Text or PDF Full Text. Some articles only have one option.

The HTML Full Text is a typed-out version of the article. Some photos or graphics may be omitted. Articles in HTML full text include the option to have the article read to you. Click the Listen button.

The PDF Full Text is an exact copy of the article including the layout and any images. This option also provides page numbers, which is easier for in-text citations.

To the right of the detailed record or the full text of an article, is a Tools bar with various icons. You can print, e-mail, save, or cite this article using these icons. The Tools bar for PDF full text includes only the icons, but the functionality remains the same.

For help citing the article, click the Cite icon in the Tools bar, which looks like a gold paper. This provides generated citations in APA, MLA, Chicago, and other citation styles. You will need to double-check all citations, as there are frequently errors with capitalization and punctuation.

If you choose to e-mail this article to yourself, you can include a citation as well. Choose your citation format from the drop-down menu on the right side.

If you would like a direct link to this article, you will need to click the Permalink option in the Tools bar. You cannot copy and paste the URL from the browser bar, as it will not work in the future.

This concludes the video tutorial on using Academic Search Complete. If you have any questions, please contact a librarian:

352-395-5409
reference@sfcollege.edu
Building Y, NW Campus
sfcollege.edu/library