EBSCOhost contains a number of individual databases. The most commonly used ones are Masterfile Premier, Academic Search Elite, and Newspaper Source, all of which cover all subjects. It also contains Business Source Elite and ERIC. This is a general guide to all EBSCOhost databases.

To access EBSCOhost databases

1. 1. Choose EBSCOhost from the drop down menu on the Research Databases page. (Click on "Find an Article" on the main page to get to Research Databases!)
1. Click on the name of a database to search that database.
2. To search multiple databases at once, check the box to the left of each database you wish to search, then click the blue “Enter” button.
2. 2. Or, go to the alphabetical or subject-based lists of individual databases on our website, and click on the specific database you are interested in (i.e. Academic Search). This will take you directly to the basic search page, with your chosen database preselected.

Basic Search (Main search page)

Type your search words in the box. Below the box you will see ways to limit your search:

1. Checking the box beside "Full Text" will return only full-text articles (no citations/abstracts)
2. To find articles in a particular journal, type its name in the box labeled "Publication".
3. Date Published: You may choose months from the dropdown menus and type in the years to limit the dates. This is handy if you need articles published within the last 2 years, 6 months, etc.
4. Search Within Full-Text Articles: If you check this, the search will find your search terms even if they're only mentioned once in the text of an article. (Normally the search covers words in the title, abstract, etc.)
5. Search for Related Words: Expands the search to include words similar to those you type.

Guided Search

To perform an advanced search, click “Guided Search” in the center of the teal bar over the search box. Guided search allows three extra capabilities:

1. Boolean searching: This is the AND, OR and NOT you see on the left. You can type search terms in each of the three boxes and connect them by choosing AND, OR or NOT from those boxes. For example,


will find articles about drug addiction, but that are not also about alcohol addiction.

2. Searching specific fields: The default search is in all fields, as in the example above. These boxes can be set to search in the title, author, or other more specific fields. This can be handy if you are looking for a particular article, or for articles by a certain author, among other things.
3. Database-specific limitations: At the bottom of the advanced search screen, you will see a box containing limitations specific to the database you are searching. Obviously these vary from database to database, but here are some common ones:
1. Scholarly or Peer-Reviewed: Checking this box will limit your search to peer-reviewed (also known as scholarly) journals.
2. Publication Type: Narrow your search to only periodicals; only newspapers, etc.

A successful search will take you to the search results page. This page lists 10 articles at a time, with blue arrows to move to the next page of results. The entry for each article includes:

1. The title of the article in blue, followed by the author, journal name, date, page numbers, etc.
2. 2. A notation of "full-text" or "PDF Full Text" if they are available (also in blue). (The difference? Full-text means text only, where PDF Full Text includes pictures, diagrams, and the original layout of the article.) "Link to full-text" means the article is available in a different EBSCO database; clicking will open a new window to view the article in.
3. 3. An ?Add? link to the right of each article for marking articles that you want to go back to.

 
• Marking articles: To mark an article, click the "add" link to the right of it in the article list, or click "Add to Folder" if you are looking at the article itself. If you mark several articles at once, you can then go back and review/print your selected articles. Just click on "View Folder" at the top of any page.
• Printing: v Printing: To print an individual article, click Print (above the article). To print your list of marked articles, click "View Folder" to see the list, then click Print.
• What about the Email and Save links? If you like, you can email the articles to yourself to read or print later. You can also save them to a floppy disk.

Always feel free to ask a librarian if you have questions or problems using EBSCOhost databases! We’re here to help you!