Section Three B: Find Books and Articles - Finding Articles and Journals - Academic Search Premier

Academic Search Ultimate is an excellent place to do basic research; it collects and presents professional data, but its coverage and content is not as detailed or as specialized as is a field-specific database, which you will learn about later. You'll find both popular and scholarly articles on most subjects, taken from a wide range of periodicals including newspapers, popular and trade magazines, and scholarly journals. Many articles are available as full text, but ASU also includes citations to materials the library does not subscribe to.  If an article you want is not available in full text, check the eJournal Finder to see if it is available in another database. Request an article from Interlibrary Loan only if you find that the journal is not available in another SUU subscription.

Searching the Academic Search Ultimate database:

On the Library homepage, scroll to the bottom, then select the Articles & Journals link under "Using the Library." Academic Search Ultimate appears at the top of the list of A-Z Databases.  ASU is an EBSCO database, and the following tips for searching can be used for all EBSCO databases.

• Enter keywords or phrases in the text boxes and click Search. Skip words like a, an, the, with, etc.
• Limiters in the Refine Results column on the left of a Search Results screen further limits results by selecting Full Text, Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals, or by specifying a date range for the Publication Date. You can also narrow your results by selecting a Source Type: Academic Journals, Magazines, or Newspapers.
• Look for and click on PDF Full Text or HTML Full Text to open an article file; articles with the Full Text Finder link are not available to you immediately, but click the link to check for access in another database or to order it via the Interlibrary Loan system.
• Click on an article title to open a description of the article and a Tools menu on the right column, which allows to Print, E-mail, Save, or Cite the article abstract and citation.
• Click on the Cite button to copy/paste the citation in APA or MLA format.
  *Please note; automated citation formats are not always up to date. You must check/correct them before using them in your Works Cited or Reference List.

Academic Search Ultimate search tips:

• Enter keywords or phrases in the search windows. Keywords can be linked with Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) in a single search window.
• Use the pull-down boxes connected to the search box to restrict your search to specific descriptive-data fields, like "Author."
• Use the truncation character * to clip a keyword into a word root. For example, type comput* to find the words computer, computing, computational, etc..

Like some help?  

• Ask at the Questions desk in the library.
• Check YouTube for "searching academic search ultimate" videos. Remember that your screen will look a little different.