Nutrition 101 Research Guide: Finding Articles in Library Databases

The SVC Library has more than 20 databases containing articles in journals, magazines, newspapers, reference books and more.  The ones described below can be accessed by clicking on the title.  

• Academic Search Complete is a general article database with journals and magazines with some nutrition sources.  You can email articles with citing information included.

• ProQuest Direct is another general article database with journals, magazines and newspapers.  It has many professional publications.  You can email articles with citing information included.

• CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature) is a focused article database and includes nutrition. 
• Science Reference Center contains full text for hundreds of science magazines, journals, encyclopedias, reference books and a vast collection of images. 

• Science Direct is a specialized article database focusing on Nursing and Health Professions as well as Environmental Science.  Be sure to Refine Your Search and select Subscribed journals and Open Access articles so you will retrieve full text articles. 

• Credo Reference contains articles in specialized encyclopedias and dictionaries. Look for longer articles and use subject headings to focus in on nutrition.

• Facts on File Issues and Controversies provides pros and cons of hundreds of issues.

The suggestions below can help you get the best results when you do your searching.

• Before you start your search, brainstorm your topic: what are all the terms that can be used, for example: alcohol OR liquor OR drink.  To get pros you can add benefit* or plus* (the asterisk allows for benefit or benefits) OR for cons you can add negative* OR minus* 
• Be brief, use as few terms as you can to start.  If you get too many results you can add more terms. If you get too little, you will need to think of broader terms
• In Academic Search Complete use the Subject Headings at the top of the page to find Broader and Narrower terms for your subject. 
• Be sure to limit your search to Peer Reviewed and Scholarly articles.  ProQuest and Academic Search Premier let you select for these.
• When you get an article that looks promising, look at the Subject Headings listed for that article.    
• Give yourself time to try different combinations.  
• Remember you can Ask a Librarian for help.