Communication Sciences & Disorders: Researching the Literature: Step 4: Database Searching

When the full text of an article is not available in the database you are searching, use View It or    to determine whether Andersen Library patrons have access to it via a different database or inter-library loan (ILLiad). Here's how:

How to Use Find It: Step by Step

Use the Journals search to find out whether we have access to a particular journal or magazine:

Since communication sciences and child language development spans a number of fields, from psychology, to sociology, to medicine, select databases from a variety of subject areas.

EBSCOHost: Before you start searching, click "Choose Databases" and then select any number of the following as well as others that you may find appropriate for your topic:

• CINAHL Plus (Nursing & Allied Health)
• Communication & Mass Media Complete
• ERIC
• Education Research Complete
• MEDLINE with Full Text
• Mental Measurements
• Professional Development Collection
• SocIndex
• Social Sciences Full Text​

Here are some search tips to remember when searching the databases.

1. Be sure to mark the "peer reviewed" or "scholarly" limit when searching for peer reviewed articles.

2. Use quotation marks around phrases (e.g. "health education", "type II diabetes")

3. Use the word "AND" between different concepts.

4. Use the word "OR" between similar concepts.

5. A common truncation symbol in the databases is the asterisk symbol *. Using this will allow you to search for various forms of the word in one step. For example, strateg* will search for strategy, strategies, strategize, and strategic.

Here are some example searches:

• ("experimental methods" or "nontraditional education" or "experimental teaching") and autism
• (treatment* or strateg* or approach* or method*) and "Prader Willi Syndrome"
• "health education" and (certif* or credent*)

View a brief tutorial