What to know: Databases have tools to help you search.
What you'll learn: How to use database filters to refine your search and get even more relevant results.
Why you should care: Database filters are a HUGE time-saver and make searching much easier.

Database Search Filters

Did you find too many articles? The database has tools to help with that!

Once you've completed a search, database filters show up in the left column of your results screen in Start Your Research, called "Refine Results". Most databases have similar filters, but they may be located in different places or have slightly different titles.

Peer Reviewed and Date filters

To limit your results to peer-reviewed articles or books, click the Peer Reviewed box.
To limit your results to a specific date range, use the Publication Date slider or type in the dates you want below that.
To limit your results to academic journal articles, click the Academic Journal box under the Publication Date slider.

*NOTE: do NOT use the Full-Text Only filter. Start Your Research doesn't always know what articles we have in full-text!

Other Helpful Filters

Subject - click on it, then click on the blue "show more" link at the bottom of this list. You'll get a popup screen that lets you choose specific subject terms that you want to have in your article results. Choose them and click "Update" and you'll narrow your search results to those that have those terms.
- If that didn't narrow your search enough, click on Subject > "show more" again! It will do the same thing with your updated results!
Others that might be helpful:
- Language - choose the article language you want.
- Publication - tells you which journals the articles are published in.
- Databases - since Start Your Research covers multiple databases, this one tells you which databases your results come from. You might notice that the best articles in your search results come from medical journals - which means you might want to search other medical journal databases.

Search-Level Filters to avoid

Publisher - unless you're looking for publishing trends in your subject area, this isn't really helpful.
Location - this only tells the location of physical books, which is the Alkek or RRC Library.
Geography - this one often excludes a lot of really good articles.
University - covers dissertations or theses written by students at specific universities.

Recap: You can use the filters in the left column of your results list to narrow your results further.
Dig deeper: What happens if you have a great list of articles but you have to get to class? Save the list of articles. Do not use the url in your browser. Instead, click on the the Share button on the top right corner of your article list. Scroll down to the Permalink or Persistent link - copy and paste that link into an email and send it to yourself. That link will work anywhere, anytime, to bring you back to your list of articles you found in your search.
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