Database Research

In a digital world most students want to find short cuts to search for

articles.That is why databases were developed. A database is simply a collection of articles from different journals that are indexed into an electronic database that can then be searched electronically using keywords, author or title names, Library of Congress subject headings, etc.Companies called database aggregators enter into agreements with a number of publishers to assemble indexes using many different journals. This saves the user time and allows one simultaneous search of any number of journals. 

Databases are typically arranged broadly according to subject areas.    Academic Search Elite is a database aggregation containing articles of journals dealing with general academic, inter-disciplinary subjects. JSTOR ideals with social science and education databases. Science Direct deals with science and technology databases.. AB In form deals with business databases.The Academy library offers several databases selected for their relevance to the courses taught here. 

These databases can be accessed on course pages by clicking on the “Academy Online Library” link. Using these databases is an art, not a science. The library page also contains links to PDF documents that discuss how to search EBSCO host and ProQuest. Most databases use the same search techniques.There is also a link on the library page to an article discussing a special type of search technique called Boolean searching. All students should read this article before beginning to conduct database searches. These databases will produce results that are not from scholarly journals. A user can, however, click on a setting that will produce only results from scholarly journals and thus let the program itself do the selection work.