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Finding Articles in Copley Library: Reviewing / Refining Search Results

This guide provides basic journal article research terminology, tips for setting up a search in a research database, and ways to use search results.

Reviewing the Search Results

Results from your database search can be quickly reviewed for accuracy and relevance.  Use the tips below and the abstracts to help inform your choice of articles to use for your research.

Take a quick look at the number of results your search retrieved.

Change the way the results are ranked using the SORT function.

Refining the Search Results

Most research databases allow you to limit the kinds of results to review.  This limiting is typically offered on the left side of the results in a display of facets (or attributes) that can be filtered.  The attributes and amount of filtering by facets may be different for each database. 

 

How to Evaluate the Publication that Hosts Your Article

Research databases generally contain articles that work with research papers.  You still should evaluate each article to make sure the information is appropriate for your paper.  Here is a link to University of California - Berkeley Library's guide on evaluating your sources of information.
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