Finding and searching databases

Databases index information about published journal articles, conference papers and other academic documents.  Find databases that are useful for your subject in our Subject Guides. 

If you know the database you want to use, search for the name of the database on the University Collections tab in StarPlus, click ‘View It’, ‘View full text’ and then ‘Connect to...’ under the Quick Links on the right-hand side.

It is worth spending time thinking about your search before you start - list relevant keywords and search terms and any alternatives. For example, if you are searching for global warming, you may also want to search for climate change and greenhouse effect. Consider different spellings such as colour/color, and any technical terms or abbreviations.

If you are searching for a phrase, use quotation marks to keep the words together, e.g. “global warming”, “European Union”.   An asterisk can be used to end a word in a variety of ways. For example, ethic* will find results that include ethic, ethics, ethically, ethical. This is also useful for words which can have alternative spellings, for example, behavio* will find results for behaviour(s), behavior(s), behavioural or behavioral.
 
Our Successful Database Searching tutorial will help you plan your search further. Or why not come to one of our Information Skills Workshops in the Diamond?