• Use AND to combine different keywords.  
  • For example, minorities AND coaching

• Use OR to combine synonyms or related terms 
  • race OR ethnicity OR minorit*

• To look for a phrase use “quotation marks” around your terms:
  • “human resource management” will find those words next to each other, instead of anywhere on the page.

• To look for variations of a word, or to look for the singular and plural, use the
  • Minor* will find minority or minorities, but it will also find anything about minor or minors.

• Use Parentheses: separate synonyms from others.
  • (race OR ethnicity) and coaching

Did you know that you can search multiple EBSCO databases at the same time?

To do this, click on "Choose Databases" link above the search boxes. The database in which you are seaching will already be checked (eg. Academic Search Complete).

Using the check boxes, select:

• Humanities Source

Once you've selected all the databases you would like to search, scroll down the screen and click OK.

At this point your screen will refresh and the name of your original database will be followed by "Show all." You are now searching multiple databases at once.

A primary source is ALWAYS:

-original

-written/recorded first-hand by somebody who was there at the time of the event (or experiment)

i.e. Your grandmother's diary from when she was a child is a primary source.  The paper you wrote about it is a secondary source. 

A good example of a primary article in the field of psychology:

Kraft, T. L., & Pressman, S. D. (2012). Grin and bear it: The influence of manipulated facial expression on the stress response. Psychological Science, 23, 1372-1378.  doi:10.1177/0956797612445312

For more information about Primary vs. Secondary (or even Tertiary) articles, please see this page from the University of Toronto. 

Typical characteristics of a Psychology primary article?

• Presents original data and ideas from a scientific investigation reported by scientist and written for others in the field.
• Reports the results of experiments, observations, and other scientific investigation.
• The body of the article usually contains the following sections:
  • Abstract
  • Introduction
  • Methods (or Materials and Methods)
  • Results
  • Discussion
  • Acknowledgements, and  Literature Cited (or References)

Examples of Journals: Science, Nature, Ecology (although they may have some secondary articles such as reviews or brief news items). Most of the journals from the American Society for Microbiology will include

• Synthesizes and summarizes results of original research.
• Describes, interprets, analyzes and evaluates the original research.
•  Comments on and discusses the evidence provided by primary sources.
• Written for a scientific audience or for a non-scientific audience.
• Written by experts (scientists) or general writers.
• Published in science magazines and may be published in some science journals.

Examples of Journals:  Scientific American, Science News, Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics.