ENGL 102: Carver, K. (Fall 2025): Article Databases

Search In Academic Search Complete

In databases such as Academic Search Complete and ProQuest, you can narrow your search and find quite specific articles. See the screen shots below with search examples for Academic Search Complete.

Search Tips

1. Begin your search for articles

Here the student is interested in genetic discrimination generally, but is focusing special attention on discriminatory practices present in the workplace. So, this student typed in the main topic, using the key words 'genetic discrimination' and then used something called a Boolean operator called AND to narrow down the resulting articles to those that address discrimination in the 'workplace.'

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2. Look at results, refine the search

Because your topic is genetics, it is important that you choose articles that are fairly recent. Check with your instructor on how far back you can go.

• You can change your date range by adjusting the date range slider bar, which appears when you are looking at a page of results. Y
• ou can also choose the type of document you want to look at: journal article, magazine, or newspaper article.

The image below shows the search filters mentioned above. 

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Once you find an article that looks good, be sure to look at the subject terms that are listed.

• Looking at the article below, I see that 'genetic privacy' is a search term, and I can use that in another search to find more articles similar to this.

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3. Getting Full-Text to Read, Print, save, email, and cite

Once you click on the full text link to an article, you will be able to save the article to Google Drive, download it, print it, email it, and get a machine-generated APA citation.

• Note that the machine-generated APA citation is not always completely correct, but it is a great place to start.

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Search In ProQuest

Search Tips 

1. Begin your search for articles

Use the Advanced Search option in ProQuest to search using keywords.

• The screenshot below shows a search for the terms: genetic discrimination AND workplace

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2.  Look at results, refine your search

Once you get results, there are a number of important ways to narrow or focus them.

• Be sure and choose a date range that makes sense for your topic.
• And you can also limit your search to scholarly journal articles, or magazine, or ebooks.

The image below shows the location of the search filters mentioned.

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3. Open full text link to read, print, save, email and get a machine-generated APA citation

Once you open an article by clicking on its full text link, look at the menu at the top right of the page to get a machine-made APA citation. It may not be perfect, but it is a good place to start. You can also save, email, and print your article.

The image below shows the location of those built-in tools that will help you cite, send, and download the articles

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