Michael Schwartz Library
Michael Schwartz Library
216.687.2478
Many electronic resources (like Research Databases and eBooks) are limited to current CSU students, faculty, and staff when accessed remotely. You may be prompted to authenticate by entering your CampusNet ID and Password.
Develop a list of keywords/search terms for your research topic/question. Include synonyms and related terms. Search on different keywords and combinations of terms to find information. Use the Boolean operators AND, OR to combine search terms. For example:
reading AND motivation AND middle school
academic achievement OR student performance
social media AND anxiety AND high school
academic achievement AND (cellphones OR mobile phones OR smartphones)
Apply limiters to narrow your search results. For example:
-Many articles are available full text online in HTML or PDF format inside the research databases.
-If not, then select the yellow Find It! button or the Full Text Finder(s) link to determine the availability of a specific article when searching the databases. You may be able to connect to the full text of the article in another database. Just follow the links!
-If the article is NOT available in the database or by selecting the other links, then check Journals at CSU. Use Journals at CSU to determine if the Library provides full text access (either online or in print) to the TITLES of specific journals, magazines, and newspapers.
-Search for the article title in Google Scholar.
-If the article is not available in any of the sources mentioned above, then request it through Interlibrary Loan.
Use Interlibrary Loan Services to get articles you need that are not in the Michael Schwartz Library or available online.
Articles are published in periodicals -- JOURNALS, MAGAZINES, and NEWSPAPERS. To find articles on a topic, search the Michael Schwartz Library's Research Databases.
Research Databases contain citations or references to articles published in various journals, magazines, and newspapers. Research Databases also contain the full text of many articles, either in HTML or PDF format. You can read the articles online, print them out, email them, or save them to your USB. The Library pays to provide access to these Research Databases -- they are not free!
For academic research, you should include articles from scholarly, peer-reviewed journals. These journals are sometimes called refereed journals. In the peer review process, an article is reviewed by experts before it is accepted for publication in a scholarly journal. Most Research Databases will allow you to LIMIT your results to peer-reviewed journals when searching.
Research studies are published in academic journals, but not every article in an academic journal will be a research study.
Open the article. Read the Abstract, which is a short summary of the article. Scroll through the article and review the sections/headings.
A research study will have a METHODS, METHODOLOGY, or RESEARCH DESIGN section that describes participants and how they were selected, as well as how data for the study were collected.
Start your search for articles in these Core Education Research Databases. Please note that you have access to two versions of the ERIC database.
