OLS: Library Guide to Resources and Databases 

If you are a new user of the IPFW Library, you may want to look at one or more of the resources which librarians provide to help orient you to the building, services, and several basic library databases:

• Helmke Library Self-Guided Tour
• Searching IUCAT Tutorial
• Finding Articles Tutorial

The following databases are frequently needed by OLS students. The Information Foraging Worksheet can help you keep track which databases you have used and your keyword search strategy.

ABI/INFORM Suite (ProQuest)

Content:	Includes three ABI/INFORM databases: Global, Trade & Industry, and Dateline. Global covers abstracting and indexing of more than 1,000 current business-related journals with full text for over half of the titles. Also includes directory information on more than 60,000 companies. Trade & Industry offers 700 full-text industry-related publications. Dateline covers local and regional publications including Fort Wayne Business People. Articles indexed in the Deep Backfile date back to the mid-1970s. An online guide is available.
Access:	Database available to authorized IPFW users (on or off campus).
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PsycINFO (CSA)

Content:	An international database treating psychology and related disciplines such as social work, psychiatry, pharmacology, medicine, nursing, education, law, linguistics and business. Items included are journal articles, books, book chapters, reports, theses and dissertations. Most citations contain abstracts and many include cited references. Coverage begins in 1887. Updated weekly. Documents included are articles in more than 35 languages from an international selection of more than 1,700 journals and other serials, and conference papers, books and dissertations. A journal list is contained in the database.
Access:	Database available to authorized IPFW users (on or off campus). IPFW's license allows an unlimited number of simultaneous users.
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Business Source Premier (EBSCOhost)

Content:	Provides abstracts and indexing of articles in more than 3,800 national, regional, and international business journals, updated daily, with more than 3,000 titles available full text. Limit to scholarly, peer-reviewed articles or full-text articles only, if desired. Indexing coverage varies, with full-text content for some titles beginning 1975 or earlier, and most titles indexed from the 1990s to present. The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review and many regional publications are included. A complete list of titles covered is available.
Access:	Database available to authorized IPFW users (on or off campus). Database available to authorized IPFW users (on or off campus). Other Indiana residents with an Internet service provider not based in Indiana (AOL, MSN, EarthLink, etc.) must first register for an INSPIRE password account.
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Academic Search Premier (EBSCOhost)

Content:	Provides abstracts and indexing of articles in nearly 8,000 popular magazines, scholarly journals, and major newspapers, updated daily, in a wide range of fields including business, education, science and technology, health sciences, humanities, and social sciences, with nearly 4,000 titles available full text. Limit to scholarly, peer-reviewed articles or full-text articles only, if desired. Indexing coverage varies, with full-text content for some titles beginning 1975 or earlier, and most titles indexed from the 1990s. A complete list of titles covered is available.
Access:	Database available to authorized IPFW users (on or off campus). Database available to authorized IPFW users (on or off campus). Other Indiana residents with an Internet service provider not based in Indiana (AOL, MSN, EarthLink, etc.) must first register for an INSPIRE password account.
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University instructors often ask students to use articles from scholarly journals rather than from popular magazines for their research assignments. Is Your Journal Scholarly? (PDF) compares basic characteristics of three types of periodicals, scholarly, trade, and popular to help you identify these publications. Of the databases listed above as useful for this course, three have a box to check which will restrict the search to scholarly publications. PsycINFO, produced by the American Psychological Association, almost exclusively indexes scholarly publications. You many want to limit your search to journal articles only however, when using PsycINFO for OLS 274 assignments, since this database includes many other kinds of literature such as books, chapters, dissertations, conference proceedings, etc.

Because the World Wide Web is a massive, tangled directory of knowledge producers, research, facts, and entertaining tidbits of information, you must be critical about the material you find there. Quality and validity are not assured when anyone can publish anything, anytime, without the benefit of scholarly peer review. There are many useful guides and tutorials to help you understand how to navigate and evaluate Web sites, including Is Your Web Site Credible?

Are you quoting, summarizing, or referring to the words or ideas of someone else? Always give credit where credit is due!!!! The following websites explain and present examples of ethical documentation, but always ask your instructor for assistance when in doubt.

Avoiding Plagiarism (Purdue University Online Writing Lab)

Provides information on plagiarism prevention geared toward students including an "Exercises for Practice" section.

Plagiarism: What It is and How to Recognize and Avoid It (Writing Tutorial Services, Indiana University Bloomington)

A concise page of plagiarism prevention information for students.

The most frequently recommended style guide for papers in OLS 274 is the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, sometimes referred to as the APA style guide. Two copies of the most recent edition of this guide are located at the Library's Service Desk for a limited checkout time, in-library use only. The APA also presents useful examples of Electronic Reference Formats Recommended by the American Psychological Association on its website. Purdue University's OWL (Online Writing Lab) also offers Using American Psychological Association (APA) Format (Updated to 5th edition) which includes sample references.

Both ABI/INFORM Suite (ProQuest) and PsycINFO (CSA) allow the user to print, email or download search results in APA format.