FINDING ABSTRACTS IN LIBRARY DATABASES - Ilene Frank

We have had a couple of requests for directions on finding articles with abstracts. The library
databases index a lot of scholarly journals – and a lot of scholarly journals have abstracts. (What
is an abstract? It’s a short summary of the research in the article. One way to think about
abstracts is imagine that you want to write one for a paper that you have written. There’s a
nice piece from USC Libraries https://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/abstract )

So… see attached a handout about getting in to LIRN and JSTOR. Here is an example on finding
an article with an abstract on business administration.
Here is my path to get into LIRN:
I logged in to UoPeople – and went to “Resources” and then to “UoPeople Library” – and then
“Access to Library and Information Resource Network” – and that gets me to the LIRN
databases.

Once in LIRN, I decided to look for one of the databases that is listed under the subject
“Business” (Just scroll down and you will see that subject area)

I got into GALE ONEFILE: BUSINESS (Gale is the name of a library vendor and they like using
their name in front of all the databases that they license to libraries)
Just to keep it simple, I put in the keywords:

Business administration

The results are set to show full text academic journal articles first. You might want to look at
the “filter your results” choices on the right side of the screen. I picked “peer-reviewed
journals” since those are the scholarly articles that are apt to have abstracts. Here is one that I
found after looking through the list of results:

Anne Oosterbaan Zeger van der Wal

June 2013
Public Personnel Management vol. 42, issue 2.
Government or business? Identifying determinants of MPA and MBA students' career
preferences
Digital object identifier http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0091026013487123

Abstract:

This article reports on a survey study into provisional career determinants of masters in
public administration (MPA) students and masters in business administration (MBA) students (N
= 131) in the Netherlands. The survey measures whether both student groups hold different
values, motivations, and sector perceptions and how these, in turn, determine provisional sector
choices right before they graduate. Differences between both groups are larger and more
classical than current literature and previous studies suggest: MPA students hold public values,
have high levels of public service motivation (PSM), positive public sector perceptions and
negative private sector perceptions, and opt without exception for a public sector career. For MBA
students, the results are completely opposite. Arguably, both groups have a rather nullified image
of professional lives in both sectors, reinforced by their respective degree programs. Implications
 are offered for future debates on public and private sector differences and the relation between
attraction and socialization of different people types by both sectors.

Keywords

PSM, values, career choice, MPA, MBA

That might work for one article that has an abstract that’s about business administration! So…
what’s the APA citation for this article? There id a built-in “cite” feature that looks like a
quotation mark up on the right side of the screen – but those automatic citation generators are
not great! That citation will probably need editing! For one thing, this article has a DOI – a
digital object identifier. If an article has a digital object identifier, use it! Make sure you use a
hanging indent and double-space your citation. Here’s my APA citation for the article we found:

Zeger van der Wal, A. O. (2013, June). Government or business? Identifying determinants of

MPA and MBA students' career preferences. Public Personnel Management, 42(2), 239+

http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0091026013487123

More info about APA citation style at

APA 7th edition Reference Examples for example Textual works (i.e. journal articles,
magazine articles, book references, etc.) Audiovisual Media, etc)

APA 7th edition Quick Reference Guide ( 2 page handout available for downloading)

Google Scholar is another place to look for scholarly articles - no authentication

required, but you'll need to look for articles that are open access. There's
information on the attached handout on how to do that.

JSTOR: I got to JSTOR and put in “fake news” as keywords.

Results in journals – about 589 items – I looked on the left side of the screen for all the subject areas -
and I picked “political science” – because I figured that there would be some articles with abstracts
there.
See below for the screen I got – the first page of an article. It’s got an abstract! AND… they say “how to
cite” with information about the article on the bottom of that first screen. DON’T USE IT! That citation
has all the information you need to do an APA citation – but that is NOT in proper APA citation style!
JSTOR also has a built-in citation tool – and you can find their recommendation for an APA citation for
this same article. The info is there and in proper order, but the capitalization is off!! Take a look at the
article I found below – and then after that screen shot – more about APA citation style
OK… So here is what JSTOR recommends for an APA citation – It is NOT CORRECT!!!:

KIRBY, R., VALASKOVA, K., KOLENCIK, J., & KUBALA, P. (2018). ONLINE HABITS OF THE FAKE
NEWS AUDIENCE: THE VULNERABILITIES OF INTERNET USERS TO MANIPULATIONS BY
MALEVOLENT PARTICIPANTS. Geopolitics, History, and International Relations, 10(2), 44-50.
doi:10.2307/26802338

There’s a digital object identifier – That is great! APA LOVES them! But capitalization is horrible
in the above citation! Should be like this – with a hanging indent – and double-spaced:

Kirby, R., Valaskova, K., Kolencik, J., & kubala, P. (2018). online habits of the fake news audience:

The vulnerabilities of internet users to manipulations by malevolent participants. Geopolitics,

History, and International Relations, 10(2), 44-50. doi:10.2307/26802338

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There is a nice piece from North Carolina State University that explains the parts
of a scholarly article - including the abstract. You might want to give this a
look! Click on the “Anatomy of a Scholarly Article link below:

Anatomy of a Scholarly Article (interactive diagram)

Select the highlighted areas to learn about the different parts of a scholarly article, such as: title,
abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion and conclusion, works cited (references or
bibliography). Sometimes it helps to read the discussion and conclusion first. Source: NCSU
Libraries.

Ilene Frank, October 2020