Database searching
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Academic Search Ultimate This link opens in a new windowOffers access to an unprecedented collection of resources including journals, magazines, reports, books, and videos. Many are peer-reviewed and full-text. Subjects range from astronomy to zoology.
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CINAHL Plus with Full Text This link opens in a new windowIs a comprehensive source for nursing & allied health journals, providing full text for more than 770 journals indexed in CINAHL® (Cumulated Index in Nursing and Allied Health Literature).
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MEDLINE with Full Text This link opens in a new windowContains articles on a broad range of medical topics relating to research, clinical practice, administration, policy issues, and health care services.
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PubMed This link opens in a new windowProvides abstracts and indexing for over 5,000 biomedical journals published in the U.S. and 70 foreign countries and includes additional older and out of scope citations from Medline journals. Maintained by the National Library of Medicine.
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ScienceDirect This link opens in a new windowProvides extensive full-text journal coverage of the physical and biological sciences, as well as some coverage of the social sciences and humanities.
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SPORTDiscus This link opens in a new windowContains mostly full-text coverage for sports and sports medicine journals covering areas of fitness, health and sport studies.
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Web of Science This link opens in a new windowEnables users to search current and retrospective multidisciplinary information from thousands of the most prestigious, high impact research journals in the world. It also provides cited reference searching.
Getting Full Text
Some databases will have the full text of the entire article available within the database, others will only have a citation for the article. When there is only a citation available, you will see a yellow find it button
(not in PubMed- PubMed is a freely available government-sponsored resource). This button will give you options for getting a full text version of the article. If we have access to it in another database it will be linked there.
If it says "Not Available Online" then look for "Check Availability in SU Catalog"; if you see that then we may have a hardcopy version on the shelf in the library.
If you don't have either of those options then you can request it through Interlibrary Loan (ILL). With ILL, the library finds the article you need AT NO EXTRA COST TO YOU. When we find it (usually within 1-3 days), you'll receive an email with access information.
Evaluating Resources
Currency
- When was the information published or posted?
- Has the information been revised or updated?
- Is the information current or out-of-date for your topic?
Relevance
- Does the information relate to your topic or answer your question?
- Who is the intended audience?
- Is the information at an appropriate level (i.e. not too elementary or advanced for your needs)?
- Have you looked at a variety of sources before determining this is one you will use?
- Would you be comfortable using this source within your research?
Authority
- Who is the author/publisher/sponsor?
- Are the author's credentials or organizational affiliations given?
- What are those credentials or affiliations?
- What are the author's qualifications to write on the topic?
- Is there contact information, such as a publisher or email address?
Accuracy
- Where does the information come from?
- Is the information supported by evidence?
- Has the information been reviewed or refereed?
- Can you verify any of the information in another source or from personal knowledge?
- Does the language or tone seem unbiased and free of emotion?
Purpose
- What is the purpose of the information? to inform? teach? sell? entertain? persuade?
- Do the authors/sponsors make their intentions or purpose clear?
- Is the information fact? opinion? propaganda?
- Does the point of view appear objective and impartial?
- Are there political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional, or personal biases?