This document provides an overview of resources for finding and accessing education articles and journals through the Swilley Library website. It discusses several databases for searching education literature, including ProQuest, EBSCO, and Google Scholar. It also reviews tools for evaluating journals, storing and organizing references, citing sources in APA format, and accessing full texts. Tips are provided for constructing effective searches and determining if the library has access to a particular journal through databases or print holdings. Users are encouraged to contact the librarian for additional help or suggestions for other resources.

1. Using the Swilley Library Website to Access Journal Databases
Refresher: How to Find Education Articles
Alternative Sources for Finding Full Text
Using Google Scholar
Verifying the Scholarly Status of a Journal: Ulrich’s Database
APA Format: References Lists and In-Text Citations
RefWorks: Storing & Organizing References, Creating Bibliographies
EDEL 810: Research Methodology

2. Several Ways to Access Databases
If you know the name of the database you want to use . . .

3. An Entry Point for Education Resources
http://swilley.mercer.edu

4. The information on the pages of this site
is organized by topic. I am always eager to hear
suggestions from students about other topics and
resources that you would like to see here. Soon I’ll
add pages to help you find statistical information,
for example. Just let me know what you’d like to see here.

5. Here’s another entry point for accessing major databases.
The first page within this tab has links to two multidisciplinary
databases – Research Library at ProQuest and Wilson OmniFile.
A sub-page has links to individual databases from the EBSCO
company and advice about how to search more than one
EBSCO database at a time.

6. A Few Quick Reminders About Constructing Searches
The limits you put on a search will determine the value of your results.
I virtually never use this limit.
Why wouldn’t I want to know
the article exists, even if I have to
do a little digging for full text?

8. Broad suggestions for related searches
if this set of results isn’t quite right.
No full text from this database. Click on the icon
to see if Swilley Library has this article from a
different database or perhaps in our print collection.
Good!

9. Clicking here open this . . .
So – Although full text is not available from the database we were
searching (ProQuest), we can see that a different database does have full text.
Now click on the name of the database to drill down for the exact article.
Choose the right year, then the specific issue.

10. Other databases also provide a link to show whether
Swilley Library has access to the journal you need.
Beyond coverage in one or more databases, we may have
print issues or microfilm for some years of this journal.

12. A very useful search function you should know about . . .
You might be pursuing a journal article you saw cited in a bibliography, not a database.
You might be dubious about the accuracy of the link-out system we just saw.
The Find a Journal tab is a reliable way to see if we have access.

13. Alternative Sources for Finding Full Text
On this page you’ll see a sequence of steps to pursue full text.

14. Establish a connection for exporting
records into your RefWorks account.
This offers much greater search precision!
You can use Google Scholar for several purposes:
To search for the full text of a known article;
As a database, to identify articles and books on your subject;
To identify other works that cite a particular article or book;
To find other articles that may be similar in their focus;
To find (sometimes) a DOI if you open the record for an article.

15. This Article
doi: 10.1177/0895904803017003002 Educational Policy July 2003
vol. 17 no. 3 317-342
Clicking on the title of the article opens the “record” from the publisher.
Look around the record . . . it may be small or inconspicuous . . . but you may see . . .

16. Is (Journal X) Considered “Scholarly”?
If you’re searching an academic database, you can limit
your results to scholarly journals by using a checkbox.
However, if you’re pursuing an article you discovered in some
other way (such as a bibliography), you need to learn about the journal.
This database … . . . informs you about journals.

17. There are choices for how you can search for
the record of the journal you’re looking for.
This journal: no icon for
“Refereed” so we have to
consider that it’s not
peer reviewed.
Click the title for information about the journal.

18. APA Format: References Lists and In-Text Citations
On this page you’ll see some “general guidelines, ” a link to
a sample APA References list, a reminder about the APA
Publication Manual, and a hint about websites that may help.
One way to know how to format something yourself is to
look closely at a published article in a journal and see how
it formats a References list and in-text citations.

19. RefWorks is web-based software that enables users to
save article records, organize them in folders, and
produce References lists in a variety of citation styles.
It has a
good “Help”
file too. You
can search
its index or
try a keyword
search.
For off-campus access, use the “Group Code” you saw during the class.

20. Dissertations and Theses (at ProQuest)
WorldCat (to identify books on a topic, whether Swilley Library has them or not)
Two more resources you may find valuable . . .
Access them like you would any database:
Thank you for your attention to all you’ve encountered in this presentation.
Please feel free to call upon me when I can offer more assistance.
Peter Otto otto_pj@mercer.edu 678.547.6256