Databases can be accessed through the library catalog or directly through the database page.
All databases can be accessed from home using the same login and password you use for MyTMCC or Canvas.
At the database menu scroll down to the Journals, Magazines and Newspapers box and click on EBSCO.
To perform research you will use the EBSCO default databases plus the PsycArticles and Psychology and Behavioral Sciences databases located at the EBSCO main menu listing of available databases. Depending on your topic's nature, you may also elect to use other EBSCO databases from the list which reflect your topic's nature. Such as the Business Elite database to identify articles related to women and workforce; women and pay inequality; women and (marketing or advertising). You may also wish to geographically limit your search to the topic by specifying and United States. Other EBSCO databases such as the Education (Professional Development Collection), Religion and Philosophy and Political Science Complete may also enhance your research results. For instance:
The 2018 Congressional elections witnessed an influx of female congresswomen. In the upcoming years many articles will be written examining this political surge. The EBSCO Political Science database will be the best place to retrieve peer reviewed articles (articles written by academics or professionals in the field) that will embrace your argumentative paper focus as to why this happened.
To structure your search using the default databases and adding the Political Science Complete database utilize your two most basic keywords linked by the word AND. The most effective way to search the EBSCO databases is by linking your search keywords using the Boolean terms AND/OR. OR expands your search results while AND narrows those results. The following is how we can effectively narrow a search:
Women and politics. As of March 21, 2019 EBSCO identified over 46,000 articles.
Next add and United States to our initial search keywords (women and politics and united states) which produces 12,500 articles
At the left side of the screen place a check mark in the Scholarly Peer Reviewed box. The search now produces a list of 3,000 articles with a date range of 1935 to 2019.
If you are not performing historical research, and desire contemporary research, change the date frame by moving the date frame bar located on the left side of the screen from 1935 to 2000. The updated result list of articles published between 2000 and 2019 generated 2,740 articles.
Using EBSCO limiters (linking keywords by using AND, geographic terms, peer reviewed, date range) and expanders (selecting additional databases, expanding the search by using related concepts such as eating disorders or bulimia or anorexia) produces either less or more results to drive the content of your paper.
Key Concepts or Keywords
Identify key concepts before beginning your research and during the research process. EBSCO can assist with this process. When you type in a subject or keyword the database automatically generates sub-topics. Many students however fail to glean what the database provided algorithm is trying to assist you with, which is aspects of the topic which you may wish to include in your paper.
As we begin to type Eating Disorders in the search box an algorithm automatically is produced that introduces us to sub-topics that can be applied in order to expand your topic focus or to narrow your topic focus.
The Eating Disorders algorithm produces the following key concepts to expand or narrow your research:
Play with various keywords to flush out a working topic. For instance, Cinderella was bullied continuously by her step sisters. One can apply this concept to women and cyber bullying in the default and psychology databases.
When you set limits to peer reviewed you will probably identify a 30% relevancy of the retrieved articles to your developing thesis. DO NOT expect every article retrieved to be relevant to your research. Go beyond relying on the first ten articles retrieved by advancing to the next page(s) of listings or further modify your search by keywords identified in the title, abstract or subject headings of an appealing article.
Searches
Your research focus needs to be on a single aspect of the Cinderella story in relation to today's society and how it relates to popular culture. You will also need to determine whether this concept enhances or detracts from behavior. For example let's perform the search: body image and self esteem and eating disorders. When the EBSCO psychology and health science databases are added to the search the number of retrieved articles total 570. When we change the date range to 2010 - 2019 the list pares down to 202 articles.
Article Abstracts
Article abstracts are a summary that informs you about the article's content. Reading the abstract to determine article relevancy saves you time. Review the abstracts associated with the most appealing articles to determine relevancy to your thoughts on shaping the thesis statement. If the article summary corresponds to your research aims then a number of things can be done to serve your purpose: