Name: Miguel Huerta Date: 10/04/2020 Period: 6

WPHS Science Research Program

Learning about Online Databases- Part 1
SWBAT: Learn how to better use different Online Search Engines and databases
DUE DATE: Friday October 2nd 11:59pm ALL LEVELS
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Step 1. Decide which 2 different research topics you may want to pursue in the future
o Using each of the following search engines and databases, compare the results after
searching for both of your 2 possible topics
o Keep track of which yields the best results (amount of related articles, level of articles)
o When searching, add words such as “research”, “organizations”, “current”, ”and”, ”or”, ”-“
▪ Ex. “Current Genetics Research”, “Psychological Organizations”
o Keep track of which “key words” help with finding the best results

Step 2. General/Popular Search Engines

o Test these three general search engines for each topic
▪ www.google.com
▪ www.yahoo.com
▪ https://scholar.google.com/
o Record the pros and cons of each search engine in the chart provided

Step 3. Scientific/Scholarly/Professional Databases

o Go to the library page of the school website:
https://wphslibrary.libguides.com/c.php?g=154422
o Click on the tab for “Online Databases & Research”
o Then click “Click here for Online Databases”
o Browse each of the following resources and complete the comparison chart below.
Login information: Username: whiteplainshs Password: wphs
▪ Academic OneFile (Gale OneFile)
▪ Academic OneFile Select (Gale OneFile)
▪ General OneFile (Gale)
▪ Health & Medicine (Gale OneFile)
▪ JSTOR (Username: whiteplains Password: tigers)
▪ Proquest (Multiple Databases)
▪ ScienceDirect
▪ Choose two additional databases not listed above
o Spanish speakers may wish to browse “Informe Academico”

Step 4. Be prepared to share your findings with the class verbally

o Be able to give your classmates some “concrete” ideas for which search engines to use
with which topics.
o Be able to share with your classmates which “key words” to use and how to most
effectively use them to help narrow down a search with the different search
engines.
Search Engine or Pros Cons
Database
Came up with a lot of results It was mainly general articles,
didn’t find many journals of
people trying to find a treatment
for dementia, google
automatically cuts out key words
Google like “Research of treatment of
dementia” will cut out “of
treatment” leading to “Research of
Dementia”. Also google will
narrow subjects like dementia into
Alzheimer’s disease.
Kept it to dementia, lots more journals, More adds than google, A lot of
gave access to current research and it the journals about dementia were
showed me a website in what to very helpful, very general. Some
Yahoo prioritize if I wanted to conducted my of the journals for music therapy
own research regarding musical therapy were not recent, coming from the
just by searching up “current musical eighties and the nineties.
therapy organizations.
Much more advanced, offered books Most of the content shown were
and journals, “current” and “research” just abstracts. To get full access to
were very helpful keywords, offered their content, you had to pay.
content that showed the potential There were a lot of options which
negatives of researching a topic, and can be overwhelming and
most of the content was fairly recent, annoying when they don’t give
Google Scholar mostly anything published after 2000. you much information and only
offer you an abstract. The only
way to narrow is by the year the
content was published.
“organizations” isn’t a helpful
keyword.
Gave me the most recent articles first, Gave me 3 not so useful dementia
lots of useful articles, a lot of options for articles, one was about
Academic OneFile the musical therapy search. “current” is Alzheimer’s disease. They were
(Gale OneFile) a good keyword”. I have access to all of very basic and general articles
the articles. with a very wide range of
information that lead to some of
the info to be unhelpful.
Academic OneFile Only focused on what I asked of it, Lots of them were brief articles.
much narrower and more precise but Even the one book it offered me
Select also useful. I have access to everything was short and off topic.
(Gale OneFile) it offered.
 I have access to everything. Lots of the same things from
academic OneFile select. Still a
General OneFile majority of the journals are brief
(Gale) articles.

Some journals were very detailed Very inconsistent when it comes

content that included visuals and they to how detailed some of the
Health & Medicine give you the most recent work. articles are. Some can be a two-
(Gale OneFile) paragraph article or a journal.
Gave me the same content from
Academic OneFile. Some ff the
charts were German that were
unable to be translated.
Learning about Online Databases
Research topics you used to compare the sites

1)Treatment for Dementia 2) Musical Therapy

research for a treatment of dementia

current music therapy organizations
 Search Engine or Pros Cons
Database
Very short but helpful books. Some Keywords like “organizations”
of the books had helpful charts. isn’t helpful. Sometimes it would
JSTOR The most helpful website. only give me an abstract even
though I narrowed it down to
content I can access.
Gives access to audio and video Some of the journals are only
works, dissertations, theses, and details of the journal which isn’t
Proquest newspapers. Highlights the work helpful
(Multiple that relates of what you searched.
Most of the content is published
Databases) after 2000.

It can provide very precise articles. Most of the time, it ends up with a
dead end or useless information.

ScienceDirect

Name of database: A very descriptive article about The only thing they gave me access
music therapy and dementia which to a description of what musical
offered visuals. Also, I was given therapy is. Although helpful for an
Britannica School access for everything. introduction to what musical
therapy is, it isn’t helpful for
research purposes. Also, they only
offered one article about musical
therapy and dementia which wasn’t
useful because they ere general
articles that aren’t really meant for
research purposes.
Name of database: It offered a 3-minute-long video for It was an introduction video for
music therapy and Alzheimer’s what music therapy is. Isn’t helpful
disease. fir research purposes. Only one
video for music therapy and one
PBS Learning Media video for Alzheimer’s disease. A
form of dementia, but limits my
research.