How to search journal articles for all researchers

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1. How to Search Journal Articles ? FHA. Shibly, P.hD Candidate Senior Lecturer in Information Technology FIA SEUSL

2. Objectives Formulate your Search Understand basic database structure Use of Boolean Logic Use Field Searching Building your search strategy

3. Searching a Database Different search interfaces do the same things in slightly different ways Good search interfaces should provide Ability to search for a specific item Ability to search for related items to a known item Ability to search in a specific field or fields Ability to combine search terms using Boolean Logic Ability to retrieve search results in a useful way

4. Why we need Journal Articles? Idea Screening Topic Selection Research Gap Priliminary Literature Literature Review Methodology Conclusion Recommendations Etc

5. Steps for Creating a Search Strategy 1. Summarize your topic 2. Identify main concepts (keywords) 3. Identify synonyms, alternate words and/or related words 4. Try different combinations of keywords Example:  How does exposure to smokers affect children who have asthma? What are the main concepts or keywords? .....smoking, children, asthma Think of synonyms, alternate words or/and related words. .....secondhand smoke, smokers..... toddler, pediatric, child .... allergies, breathing problems Develop your search strategy using the terms above. Mix and match terms. If one keyword doesn't work, try to vary your keywords with synonyms.

6. Boolean Operators

7. Index Databases

8. http://www.seu.ac.lk/library/online_journals.php#3 How to Use our library for searching Journals?

9. Step-By-Step Search Construction State the question Identify the concepts in the question For each concept, determine keywords and subject terms Specify field tags after terms if needed Combine terms for the same concept with “OR” in parenthesis Combine “OR” statements with AND Put any NOT terms at the end Keep track of your searches, how many articles were found total, and how many you selected as relevant

10. Discussion

11. All the best !