Eight

Ways
to Search
in
SocINDEX
Basic Search
A basic search is a good option if you havent yet narrowed down your topic and youre looking for a wide
variety of potential sources. (See Figure 1 below.) Start by selecting Basic Search under the find field at the
top of the page and entering one or more search terms (a search term can be either a word or a phrase) into
the find field. (Also see Some Search Tips below.)
Search Options
Even in Basic Search, you have some ways to expand or limit your search in the green Search Options box
below the find field.
Search Modes and Expanders
Selecting Find all my search terms will limit the search to only items that include all terms in the find field.
Selecting Find any of my search terms will expand the search to items that include at least one of the
search terms.
Click on SmartText Searching if you wish to search using a larger chunk of text, such as a sentence or
paragraph, rather than a word or phrase. Youll notice that the find field becomes much larger when this
option is selected.
Select Apply related words to have SocINDEX use its sociological thesaurus to include indexed related
terms in the search automatically. These will not show up in the find field.
SocINDEX is an invaluable tool for sociological research. This EBSCOhost
database contains over 2.1 million records that have been indexed using a
specialized sociological thesaurus that includes over 20,000 subject terms.
SocINDEX provides article abstracts for over 1,300 journals, as well as
selective coverage of nearly 3,000 more journals. Conference papers,
magazines, trade publications, editorials, reviews, letters, and a few
hundred books and dissertations are also indexed. Many abstracts include
links to full text, either in SocINDEX itself or via a link to the librarys other
resources. If linked full text isnt available, its a simple process to request it
electronically via interlibrary loan.
SocINDEX has some unique search features. Its sociological thesaurus
provides some powerful search capabilities. SocINDEX also includes over
25,000 indexed and searchable author profiles that provide biographical
and bibliographical information about authors whose work is included in
the database. It also provides links to cited references, which are
searchable as well.
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Limit Your Results
Before clicking on the Search button, you can limit your search to specific resources:
Linked Full Text: Click this checkbox to limit the search to items that are available in full-text format in
SocINDEX or in the librarys digital collections.
References Available: Click this checkbox to limit the search to items with cited references.
Number of Pages: If youre looking for items of a minimum, maximum, or specific length, use the
dropdown menu to specify this and enter the number of pages in the box below the dropdown menu.
Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals: Click this checkbox to limit your search to scholarly journals.
Date of Publication: Use the dropdown menus and the boxes here to limit your search to a specific
date range. You can leave the dropdown menus at the default Month and just enter years if you
prefer.
Publication: If you know the name of the specific publication you wish to search, you can enter that
name here.
Publication Type: You can limit your search to periodicals, books, or conference proceedings here.
Note that periodicals include academic journals, trade publications, and magazines.

Figure 1. The Basic Search screen.
1 = The find field. 2 = Search modes and expanders. 3 = Limit your results.

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Advanced Search
An advanced search will allow you to narrow your
search results to a specific topic or group of topics, as
well as to specify what types of sources youre looking
for. Advanced Search is the default search page in
SocINDEX, but if you need to navigate there, select
Advanced Search under the find field. (See Figure 2
below.)
Start by entering a search term (either a word or a
phrase) into the first find field. You can leave the
dropdown menu as it is with the default Select a
Field (optional) to search all text, or you can use the
dropdown menu to narrow the search to a specific
field, such as author, title, or subject. (Also see Some
Search Tips below.)
If your search involves more than one concept, you
can enter more search terms in the additional find
fields. (If you need more than three fields, click Add
Row to add more.) You can leave the connector as
the default AND to limit your search to results that
contain all search terms, or you can use the dropdown
menu to change AND to OR to expand the search
to results that contain either search term. Use the
dropdown menu to change AND to NOT to
eliminate the specified term from all results. For
example, you might enter teenagers and select
NOT if you do not want articles that discuss
teenagers.

Search Options
You can also expand or limit your search in
the green Search Options box below the
find fields. The search options in Advanced
Search are the same as in Basic Search,
described above, with two additional
limiters under Limit Your Results:
Document Type: Use the menu to
limit your search to specific types
of documents, such as articles or
conference papers. Press and hold
the Ctrl key on your keyboard as
you click on the options to select
more than one document type.
Cover Story: Click this checkbox if
you are only looking for articles
that were featured as cover stories.

Eight Ways to Search in SocINDEX/4


Figure 2. The Advanced Search screen.
1 = The find fields, connectors, and Select a Field dropdown menus. 2 = Search modes and expanders. 3
= Limit your results. 4 = Document type limiters. 5 = Cover story limiter.

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Other Ways to Search
There are six other useful search options provided in the blue menu bar across the top of the page in
SocINDEX.
Publications
A publications search allows you to select specific publications in the database. You can browse the
alphabetical list or you can search within the list. When you find the publication(s) you want to use, click
the checkbox next to the publication title and then click the Add button. Alternatively, you can click on
the publication title to go to a description of the publication and links to all available issues, arranged
chronologically.
Subject Terms
A subject terms search allows you to choose specific terms from the SocINDEX sociological thesaurus. It
also provides guidance on which search terms to use in SocINDEX. This can be a helpful way to determine
whether your chosen search terms are allowing you to find what youre looking for. For example, under
academic advising, the thesaurus notes that the term counseling in higher education should be used.
A link is then provided to the correct term.
You can browse the terms or search for specific terms. Clicking on the subject terms highlighted in blue
will lead you to the thesaurus entry for the term, which may include, as applicable, a scope note that
provides a definition, broader terms, narrower terms, related terms, and terms for which this term is
used instead.
Use the subject terms in a search by clicking the checkbox to the left of a term and then clicking on the
Add button. Select as many terms as you like. Some subject terms also have a checkbox to the right of
the term, under the heading Explode. Clicking this checkbox and then clicking the Add button will
add relevant narrower terms to the search in addition to the term selected.
Author Profiles
An author profiles search allows you to search for sources by specific authors. You can browse the list or
search for a specific name. To add an author name to a search, click the checkbox to the left of the name
and then click the Search button. You can select multiple names on multiple pages before clicking
Search. You can also click on the authors names to find their affiliation and contact information, their
educational background, journals in which they have published, and subjects and keywords related to
their publication record.



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Cited References (under More)
A cited references search allows you to search for sources that include specific citations. You can search by
cited author, cited source, cited title, cited year, or a combination of these. You can also search for terms
across all citation fields.
Images (under More)
An images search allows you to search for images in the database. Under Search Modes, you have the
same search options as under a basic or advanced search. However, you can also limit your results to
photographs, graphs, maps, charts, diagrams, or illustrations, or a combination of these. In the search
results, clicking on the thumbnail image or the article title will lead to a slightly larger image with
descriptive information.
Indexes (under More)
There are 14 indexes in SocINDEX: author, author-supplied keywords, company entity, document type,
entry date, geographic terms, ISBN, ISSN, language, people, publication name, reviews and products,
subject terms, and year of publication.
An indexes search allows you to utilize the 14 database indexes in two ways. You can browse them by
choosing the index from the dropdown menu and then clicking Browse, or you can enter a specific term
after Browse for and select an index in which to browse, starting with that term. Within the indexes, you
can conduct a search of the database by selecting the checkbox to the left of the index entry, clicking on
Add, then clicking on Search at the top of the page.
Your Search Results
In addition to specifying search options as you construct your search, you can also refine your search results
after youve performed the search. On the left side of your screen, you have seven options that will help you
narrow down your search, if needed. (See Figure 3 below.)
Refine Your Results
Under Refine Your Results, you can use the checkboxes to narrow your results to items with linked full text,
items from scholarly (peer reviewed) journals, and items with references available. You can also use the slide
bar to narrow down the publication date. If any of these options were already selected as you constructed
your search, they will be automatically selected here as well.
By clicking on Show More, you will open a Search Options window that is identical to the Search Options
box on the search page. Please note that if you conducted a basic search, you will only see the search options
provided on the Basic Search page.

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Source Types
You can use the checkboxes under Source Types to narrow your results to specific kinds of information
resources, such as conference papers or magazines. If any of these options were already selected as you
constructed your search, they will be automatically selected here as well.
Subject: Thesaurus Term
If you click on Subject: Thesaurus Term, you will have the option to narrow the search results using
related terms from the SocINDEX sociological thesaurus. If there are more than six, clicking on Show
More will open a window with more terms from the thesaurus from which to choose.
Subject
If you click on Subject, you can narrow the search results using the subjects provided in the abstracts. If
there are more than six, clicking on Show More will open a window with more subjects from which to
choose.
Publication
If you click on Publication, you can narrow your search to one or more specific publications. If there are
more than six, clicking on Show More will open a window with more publications from which to
choose.
Company
If you click on Company, you can narrow your search to results that discuss a specific organization
not just companies, but other types of organizations as well, such as government agencies. If there are
more than six, clicking on Show More will open a window with more organizations from which to
choose.
Geography
If you click on Geography, you can narrow your search to results that discuss particular geographic
locations. Note that this is not related to where the source was published, but rather to what is discussed
in the source. If there are more than six, clicking on Show More will open a window with more
countries from which to choose.
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Figure 3. How to narrow your search.
1 = Refine your results. 2 = Source Types. 3 = Subject: Thesaurus Term. 4 = Subject. 5 = Publication.
6 = Company. 7 = Geography.

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Some Search Tips
Include Similar Terms
Using the sociological thesaurus in SocINDEX is a great way to think of alternative terms to include in your
search (using an OR connector between terms). Including similar terms in a search will improve your
chances of finding all available sources. For example, if your search includes the term women, you
might want to expand that by searching for women OR females.
Use Wildcards
You can use symbols called wildcards to expand your search.
?
Use ? to replace a letter in a search term to find similar words, such as plurals. For example, a search for
wom?n will return results that contain woman and women.
#
Use # if a word might be spelled with an extra character. This is especially helpful if a search term is
spelled differently in the United States and in Britain. For example, a search for colo#r will return results
that contain color and colour.
*
Use * to find words with various endings. This is called truncation. For example, a search for organize*
will return results that contain organizer, organizers, and organized.
You can also use * between words to stand for any intervening word.