STEM Access

Indexes vs. Electronic Journal Collections: Why aren’t any articles from this journal showing up?

On occasion, I get asked why no articles from certain journals show up when a patron does a search in one of the databases.  Usually the reason is because the patron is searching an electronic journal collection rather than an index. Indexes list articles from journals (and sometimes books and conferences) with their bibliographic information and add extras such as subject information and abstracts.  Usually the abstracts are those provided by the authors, but some indexes actually have professionals read every article and write a summary. When you run a keyword search in an index, you generally are searching...
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STEM Access

Cited Reference Search

In my last entry, I talked about cited reference searches.  What are these exactly? Most people realize that when they find an article that really fits their topic looking at the references listed at the end of article will lead them to more articles which are related to the original topic.  This is a great way to research, but there’s only one problem:  the reference list of a paper will only list other references that are older than the paper itself.  If the paper was published within the last year, then probably the most up-to-date resources are listed, but...
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STEM Access

What’s the Best Database?

If you have ever looked at the list of electronic resources at Baylor, you can be easily overwhelmed as we currently have almost 700 listed.  Although you can narrow the list down by a subject in the pull-down menu, the list is still alphabetical and it can be hard to know which is the best database for your search. So here are some suggestions for a “goto” database for the STEM disciplines at Baylor Aviation Science:  AAIA Online Biology:  PubGet Chemistry:  SciFinder Communication Science & Disorders:  ComDisDome Computer Science:  ACM Digital Library Electrical Engineering:  IEEE Explore Environmental Science:  Environment...
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