Search Tips
Maximize your keyword searches with Boolean searching.
AND: "adult education" AND programs will help focus your search, narrowing your search results.
OR: "adult education" OR "adult learning" NOT: "adult education" will broaden your search, giving databases choices to search for.
NOT: "basic education" will narrow your search by excluding any ideas you'd like to remove from your search results.
Use "quotation marks" to search for exact phrases: "adult education"
Use the database’s built in limiting features like Date or Peer Review
Truncation: The symbol used is usually *. "ADULT LEARN*" will retrieve: adult learning, adult learner, adult learners
Remember to check database Subject terms for synonym words/phrases.
Searching for Full Text
If you come across a citation to an article and you'd like to track down its full text, follow the steps below:
- Start Your Research1. When searching for the full text of an article, start by searching the "title of an article" (enclosed in "quotation marks").
- Journals/Periodicals Search2. If you're unable to locate the fulltext by searching the article title in SYR, next try searching the "journal title" in Journals/Periodicals, which is a searchable list of print/online journals accessible through the University Libraries. This search tool will also indicate if a journal is peer reviewed.
- Interlibrary Loan (ILL)3. If the Library does not have print/online access to a journal you need an article from, request a copy of the article via ILL.
The example below shows that The Journal of Continuing Higher Education is accessible in ***print/microform*** as well as online. The entry also shows coverage dates to indicate which years are accessible.
Google Scholar
Google Scholar can be a useful tool when collecting research information.
Consider the features in Settings to make it work better with your research:
►Library Links - FindIt@TxState
►Bibliography Manager - set this EndNote (which is referring to the desktop version).
Many library databases allow searches to be limited to articles published in Peer-Reviewed journals, but this filter is not available in Google Scholar. Consult Ulrich's to find out if a journal is considered Refereed/Peer-Reviewed by searching the title of the journal.
This is a browser extension - if you find an article on the web, it will bring you to the full-text through TXST Libraries. This tool can also help with alerting you to journals considered "Problematic" (potentially predatory).