Advanced Databases Workshop Information

This guide is a companion to the Advanced Databases for Advanced Researchers workshop presented during OSU's New Graduate Student Library Day Orientation. Use the practice recommendations that accompany the videos and links below to familiarize yourself with how to use the advanced search tools available at OSU Libraries. 

Slides for the 2025 Advanced Databases Workshop

Watch the Intro to Web of Science video below to learn how to:

• interpret the search results display and how you can change the results order
• narrow your search and see patterns in your Web of Science search results
• connect to other articles
• graphically view your search results
• access the full-text of an article. 

Note - use the chapter menu (three lines in the upper left corner of the video) to jump to different topics.

Click image below to view video.

Practice Recommendations:

• Enter your own search in Web of Science
• Look at the narrowing options
• Look at the sorting options
• Make a graph of your search results
• Open the full-text of an article

Watch the Searching in Subject Databases video below to learn:

• the benefits of using subject-specific databases
• how to find subject databases in your area at OSU Libraries
• how to narrow your results, think of new keywords, and set up saved searches
• how to troubleshoot your search, especially when you have few or no results.

Note - use the chapter menu (three lines in the upper left corner of the video) to jump to different topics.

Practice Recommendations:

• Choose a subject database in your field
• Enter some search terms
• Practice narrowing your search
• Find new keyword ideas
• Open the full-text of an article
• Look for options for setting up search alerts

Search 1Search to find books, online scholarly articles or newspaper articles that OSU subscribes to or that we can borrow for you for free. 

• Advanced search - If you need to find specific items, such as books by a particular author, use the advanced search option for more precise searching. 
• Use the drop-down menu to access the journal title search to find specific journal titles like the Journal of Ecology.
• Click Databases A-Z to find specialized subject search tools like Web of Science or Academic Search Complete.

Watch this video to learn how to link your Google Scholar preferences and OSU Libraries so you can access articles the library subscribes to.

Alternatively, use these step-by-step instructions.

Watch this video to learn how to set up your OSU interlibrary loan account so you can get articles emailed to you — even when OSU Libraries doesn't have a subscription to the journal.

Watch this video to learn how to place a request through OSU's interlibrary loan.

Adding LibKey Nomad to your preferred browser helps you go directly from the button (or link with this text) in search tools (e.g., databases, Google Scholar) to a page where you can download the article PDF (when OSU Libraries has paid or free access to the article). See the LibKey Nomad image below to see where to grab the the article PDF.

Current OSU students, faculty, and staff must enter their ONID login information and DUO authentication to access OSU Libraries' resources. If an online resource is not working properly through the Libraries' proxy connection, OSU's VPN service can be used. Some OSU services require connecting via the VPN.

To learn more, read how to set up off-campus access to OSU Libraries' resources.

OSU Libraries is piloting a subscription to some AI literature search tools like Scite, and provides a critical review and recommendations about several other free AI literature research tools. To see the comparison of current AI literature research tools OSU Libraries subscribes to along with several free tools visit this Tool Comparison Guide.

Here are some tricks of the trade to make your searches more effective (these work in most databases):

• Use "quotes" to search for an exact phrase or name
• Use an asterisk with word roots to expand beyond an exact word (e.g. "legislat*" for "legislation", "legislator", etc.)

Searching in Google? Try these tricks:

• Search for a specific file type: "filetype:pdf"
• Search within a particular website: "site:nytimes.com"
• Look for related words with a ~

Finally, reference management software like Zotero is great for organizing, annotating, and citing sources wherever you find them.