Interdisciplinary & Multidisciplinary Undergraduate Research: Search Strategies

OneSearch (***To log into our databases off-campus you'll need to use your email or Canvas login.)

Search most of Skyline Library's article databases and book catalog to find a wide range of articles from academic journals, popular magazines, newspapers and reference sources, e-books & other documents, plus print books available in the library.

• Begin with a simple search by typing your search terms or keywords in the search box. Remember, search engines yield best results if you search using words as opposed to whole sentences or questions. Click on the magnifying class to execute your search and see your search results.

• Use filters on the left to limit your search results by format or resource types, dates, etc.

• Use Advanced Search to specify content or topic of your search results.

• If an article title looks good, click on the title or Available Online link to access the resource. If off-campus, you will asked to sign in with your SMCCD login information.

Searching 

Below are some advanced search strategies to enhance your searches within YouTube

+keyword to force the search results to include your second search phrase.

-keyword to force the search results to omit your second search phrase.

“keyword(s)” to force exact keyword(s) match

intitle: to look for keywords in content title

You can activate filters and fine relevant content by using commas in your search query

,cc Captioned content only

,channel Channels only

,creativecommons Creative Commons licensed content only

,hour (,today; ,week; ,month; ,year) Content uploaded in the last hour only (today, week, month, year)

,long Content longer than 20 minutes

,short Content shorter than 4 minutes

,spherical 360° content only

,3d 3D content only

,hdr HDR content only 

Searching Google Scholar

• When on-campus, Google Scholar will automatically display links for access to the full text of search results.
• When you are off-campus, you will new to set up Google Scholar to find articles available to you through the library databases. Go to https://scholar.google.com/ (Links to an external site.) or Google “google scholar”  
  • Click on the three bars in the upper-left hand of the screen
  • Click on “Settings” and then “Library Links”
  • Type “Skyline College” in the search field, click the box to the left at Skylines College’s name and save.

Using Google Scholar is easy. Watch How to Use Google Scholar Tutorial below on How to Use Google Scholar:

                                                       How to Use Google Scholar - Video ~ 4 mins

               How to Use Google Scholar. How to Use Google Scholar. YouTube.  18 Jul. 2017

Advanced Google search 

To search for multiple concepts: 

• use ORs between words for the same concept.
  • example:   LatinX OR Latino OR Hispanic
• use quotes (" ") around phrases.
  • example: "climate change"

• Google does not use the *
• Google assumes AND 

To limit to a specific domain, use site: in front of the domain name (no spaces)

• site:.edu   will limit a search to just .edu sites 
• site:.edu OR site:.gov   will limit a search to either .edu or .gov sites
• -site:.com  will exclude .com sites

To limit to a specific format, use filetype: in front of one of format abbreviations as pdf, xls, pp,t mp4, docx, pptx, xlsx

To limit to a specific website, use site: in front of the website address (no spaces)

The Atlantic           (theatlantic.com)

The New Yorker     (newyorker.com)

NPR                       (npr.org)

New York Times     (nytimes.com) 

Washington Post (washingtonpost.com)

Complete search example: 

"flint water crisis" "african american" site:gov

"environmental justice" race site:edu site:npr.org

gender climate justice site:edu

 "toxic waste" racism filetype:pdf