What is a Journal Database?

What is a journal database?

A database is a collection of information, in this case journal articles, arranged in individual records which can be searched by computer. Some journal databases also include conference papers, book chapters, reports, dissertations, books and other types of information.

Journal Ddatabases collect together articles in a subject area. The subject could be general (eg. education) or more narrowly defined (eg. Australian criminology).

They allow you to search for articles using keywords. You can combine keywords or use a phrase to focus your search to find articles most relevant to your topic.

Journal databases generally provide a reference or citation - enough information to allow you to find the article. The citation would normally include: the title and author of the article; the journal name, volume and issue numbers, pages and date; subject headings and often an abstract (summary) of the article. Sometimes the full text of the article is also available.

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How do journal databases differ from Primo Search?

Primo Search will find all of the Library's books and journals, reserve and eReserve material, and CSU's research outputs (CRO). It can also help you find many of the articles and electronic resources in the journal databases.

You will need to use Primo Search to find out whether the library holds a particular article using its citation details, and you can also try a keyword search to look for articles on your topic. The View Online links in Primo Search will direct you to the journal database where the journal article is held, allowing you to access the full text.

However, using keyword searches in Primo Search will not find you all of the journal articles that the CSU Library subscribes to. Specifically, Primo Search does not find material in any of the legal databases, some business and advertising databases, and several others. Also, it may not find older material, or articles that the library holds in print format.

Primo Search is a good place to start your research and to locate resources when you have the citation details, but it is recommended that you try the journal databases as well, particularly if you are looking for law cases and reports.

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How is searching databases different from searching the Web?

Most subject specific databases index the main academic literature of that subject area. Articles indexed on databases are likely to contain more reliable and more thoroughly researched information than material on the Web.

The Web is an excellent source of information about government departments; companies; latest news and lots more. However, when you search the Web you can also find a lot of irrelevant and unsubstantiated information.

Library databases are available via the Web, but they are available only by subscription - your CSU Online username & password allows you to use the databases subscribed to by the Library.

It can be easier to find a collection of articles directly relevant to your assignment by searching the right database rather than surfing the Web.

Unlike the Web, databases are well indexed - someone has looked at each article and given it subject headings. This means that if you can identify relevant subject headings or keywords you should be able to find other articles that use those headings and therefore other relevant articles.

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