Viewing the Results of Your Search

Deciphering your results

The results you get from your search depend on the type of database you are searching.

A bibliographic database provides a citation which is a basic description of an article. This usually includes the title of the work, the author, the publisher, the date, the original source, the city of publication, etc., according to the type of item being cited (e.g. book, magazine article, World Wide Web site, etc.)
A bibliographic database may also provide an abstract — a short summary of the contents of an item in a database.
A full-text database will display an article in its entirety. Full-text articles can appear as HTML documents, in which all the words that appeared in the original print format are offered to you online, or as PDF documents, which show each page as it appears in the print journal or magazine. Non-textual material such as pictures and charts are not always included.

Each of the following links will open a pop-up window with an example of the different citation types:

WANT MORE on citations?
>Unit 5 > The Great GALILEO
and
> Unit 8 > Giving Credit Where Credit is Due