1. The search box on the library home page allows you to search a major inter-disciplinary database called Summon.
2. Popular databases introduce key interdisciplinary databases.
3. 'Subjects A to Z' introduces subject specific databases, listed by discipline.
4. 'Research guides' often recommend journal databases as well.
Summon is a massive, interdisciplinary super-index, combining journal indexes, book and journal databases from publishers, and open access sources, together with our library catalogue and local collections.
Strengths: Huge. Allows full-text searching. Covers many different kinds of material. Allows you to search many of our smaller databases at once. Many articles are full text.
Limitations: Limited search options can make it difficult to focus your results.
Google Scholar is Google's free, open source search engine of scholarly material.
Strengths: Huge. Free on the Web. Full text is available for many articles. Provides some information about who has cited an article.
Limitations: Doesn't include full text of commercial and other publishers who are not free on the Web.
Configure Google Scholar for University of Toronto content. This will help you access the full text of articles that the U of T libraries subscribe to.
1. Within Google Scholar: select 'Settings,' and then 'Library Links.'
2. Search for University of Toronto, and then click the box beside it.
ProQuest combines more than 60 specific databases from a variety of disciplines. Some include substantial full-text.
Strengths: Large. Interdisciplinary. Substantial content is available full text. Can search one database at a time for focus, or cross search the full-database. Flexible search options make it possible to search full-text, or use sophisticated indexing to focus, depending on which specific database you are searching.
Limitations: Doesn't cover as much content as Summon. It is important to check whether your discipline is well represented.
EBSCO combines more than 80 specific databases from a variety of disciplines.
Strengths: Large. Interdisciplinary. Can search one database at a time for focus, or cross-search. Flexible search options make it possible to search full-text, or use sophisticated indexing to focus.
Limitations: Doesn't cover as much content as Summon. It is important to check whether your discipline is well represented.
JSTOR is a popular, interdisciplinary database that includes the full text of core journals in many academic disciplines.
Strengths: Good quality journals. Full text is available for most content. You can search the full text of the article.
Limitations: Includes a limited number of journals. Lack of subject terms and limited abstracts can make it harder to focus.
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