Module 3: Limiters

Recommended Instructions for Module 3:

1. Read and/or listen to Module 3 Summary and Objectives

2. Watch embedded YouTube tutorial below or go to Module 3's subpage: Module 3 Screenshot walkthrough.

3. Complete the practice section at the bottom.

Module 3 Summary

It's great to get exactly the information you need, but sometimes, good search words and Boolean searching can't get you exactly what you need by themselves. Sometimes you need information that's specific to a time frame or you need information that's peer-reviewed. Boolean searching can't help you with this. For this, you need to use the built-in limiters that the databases provide.

Like Boolean searching, almost all databases provide the three main limiters: date, peer-review, and full text. These three are powerful limiters and will drastically narrow results. Keep in mind that not everything is available in full text, and that limiting to this may actually be more harmful than helpful in your search. Libraries have the ability to get you almost any article you need, and the instructions for asking librarians to request articles from other libraries is included in this module, too.

Module 3 Objectives:

1. Know how to limit your results by database.

2. Know how to limit your results by date.

3. Know how to limit your results to peer-reviewed.

4. Know how to limit your results to full text.

5. Know what to do when full text isn't available.

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For Closed Captioning, please click CC. These are HD recordings--please change 480p to 1080p. For larger screen, click the far right corner.

Module 3 Video Tutorial: Limiters

Further Practice

Want some practice? Try this case scenario:

Your mission, should you choose to accept it: to do a search for full text, scholarly articles on organic farming in the U.S from 2000 to the present. This is your chance to practice doing a real search using what you’ve learned. Don’t worry about your database choice—use Academic Search Premier. Focus instead on what your search terms are, how to combine them, and how to limit your search to exactly what you need.

To ponder: What did you come up with? Did you find it difficult to find the information, and if so, was it the limiters or putting together the search that was difficult?