PRELIMINARIES: Read about electronic modes of access and the profiles of the four full-text journal databases we will be using on Dr. Schwartz's Guide to Kennedy Library Research Tools.  Be clear about what each database includes, what to use them for, and their advantages and disadvantages.  Carefully read information on SFX and on Polysearch (and their limitations).    Know what to add to the citation of a journal article citation accessed electronically  through a subscription database. 

NOTE 1:  While you can access this page of instructions and the four full-text journal article subscription databases directly using any web browser, it may be most efficient to do so from within your course page in Blackboard, where you will be submitting your Research Progress Reports to the class Research Archive (click on "Discussion Board") and where you can access this assignment page, via the External Links section, from both our class home page and the Calendar of Assignments.  Within Blackboard, our full-text journal article subscription databases can be accessed using the "Library Resources" tab, on the alphabetical list of "Article Databases" (look them up individually, or click on "databases by subject" which will redirect you to a subject listing page from which you can click on "English" to find Academic Search Elite, the Expanded Academic Index, Project Muse and JSTOR grouped together, along with a database of Contemporary Authors).  

Another (less efficient) way to access these subscription databases is from the Research Guides tab: under the heading "General," click on "Finding Scholarly Sources"; then click on "Finding Peer-Reviewed or Refereed Journals," where links to Academic Search Elite and the Expanded Academic Index are found under the heading "General Academic, Interdisciplinary," while links to Project Muse and JSTOR are found under the heading "Humanities and Arts."  Note:  if  from the Research Guides tab you select instead the Research Guide for English, you will find links to Project Muse and JSTOR (oddly, folded into a description of and link to the MLA Bibliography), but not to Academic Search Elite or the Expanded Academic Index.

To access Blackboard, log in at MyCalpoly, go to "Blackboard Access" and select this class. 

If you're not a Blackboard fan, you can also access the four databasesby clicking on the links on this page of instructions; from the main Kennedy Library website (select All Article Databases -- view alphabetically and follow the path indicated above; or start from the Research Guides tab and follow the path described above; note that you can also link to the library main page through the "Library Services" tab on your My Cal Poly portal).  If you choose to access the four full-text journal articl subscription databases outside of Blackboard, you can write up your Research Report using the word-processor of your choice and cut and paste it into the message screen which opens when you click on "Add New Thread" in your Research Report Archive.

NOTE 2: If no report screen appears when you click on "Add New Thread" in your Research Report Archive (within the Discussion Board section of Blackboard), your computer may be set up to block "active content" (e.g. script and ActiveX controls necessary for the Discussion Board to function properly).  Check to see if a security warning about "active content" has appeared on your web browser screen (e.g. "To help protect your security, Internet Explorer has restricted this file from showing active content that could access your computer.  Click here for options. . .").  Click on the provided link and select "Allow blocked content"; at the next prompt ("Allowing active content such as script and ActiveX controls can be useful, but active content might also harm your computer.  Are you sure you want to let this file run active content?"), click on "YES."  When you reenter your archive and click on "Add New Thread," a report screen with editing and formatting tabs should appear. 

NOTE 3:  if your "Add new thread" report screen does not include editing and formatting functions (bold, underlining, etc.), you may have have to change web browsers. These functions are acessible from Internet Explorer, but not e.g. in Mozilla Firefox.

NOTE:  do NOT use Polysearch to search multiple databases until AFTER you have completed this exercise and learned to use each of the four listed databases SEPARATELY; your reports on each database should include comments on particular search functions that are unique to each and which distinguish them from one another. 

Using the usual assortment of search terms, and any others you think might be useful, search for FULL-TEXT ARTICLES on your topic available through the electronic journal databases to which Cal Poly subscribes:

• Academic Search Elite, indexing over 3,400 publications, including scholarly journals in the social sciences, humanities, general science, education and multicultural studies,as well as popular magazines. Full-text electronic access is provided for over 1,300 periodical titles. Where full text is not available, citations may include an abstract (summary of an indexed article). Coverage: from 1990 to the present.
• Expanded Academic Index, indexing over 1400 core scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and general sciences as well as some popular publications (including the New York Times). About one-third of the indexed articles include full-text electronic access. Where full text is not available, citations may include an abstract (summary of an indexed article). Coverage: from 1980 to the present.
• Project Muse, offering full-text electronic access from a searchable database of over 100 scholarly journals in the humanities and social sciences. Coverage: from 1997 to the present.
• JSTOR, offering full-text electronic access from a searchable database of the back issues for more than 350 scholarly journals in the humanities and social sciences. Coverage for each journal begins with volume 1. Because JSTOR is an archival database, issues are not available for the latest 3-5 years.

Click on "Add New Thread" to create your report.  You should type (or cut and paste) your report directly into the message screen; it cannot be submitted as an attachment.  (If you don't get a message screen after clicking on "Add New Thread," follow the instructions under NOTE 3, above.)  Be sure to click on "submit" when you are finished (or to save a report you are working on).  You can edit or add to a report after submission by clicking on it and then on the "modify" tab; again, be sure to click on "submit" to save your work when you are done. Start a separate "thread" for each different report, using the subject line specified in the instructions. Using the "reply" tab creates a new message that is part of the same "thread"; for subsequent reports, start a new "thread" rather than using the "reply" tab.

You should submit to your research archive four separate REPORTS explaining the searches you tried in each database and how many relevant full-text articles (NOT just the abstract for articles which are not available in full text) which you found in each case.  The subject line of the reports should read e.g. "ASE search results" (or, substitute "EAI," "Muse," or "JSTOR" for "ASE").  If you are in a 400- or 500-level class for which you are completing an actual research project, at least one of these reports must include a bibliographic entry IN CORRECT MLA FORMAT for a full-text article on your topic (NOT just the abstract for an article which is not available in full text) which you have found in one of the electronic journal databases.  If you are learning to use these research tools in a Core class, EACH REPORT must include a bibliographic entry IN CORRECT MLA FORMAT for an article on your topic (or a closely related topic) which you have found in the electronic full-text journal database you are reporting on.

Core students should also submit a hard-copy page with the bibliographic citation on it, to which they should staple the following print-outs:

1. publication information on the article in question (typically found on the search results page to which the full text of the article is linked)
2. the FIRST and LAST pages of the article itself (these print-outs will allow me to verify that the pagination you have provided is correct, and that you have in fact located a full-text article rather than simply the abstract of an article which is not available in full-text in the database you are searching).

NOTE 1:  Polysearch is a new (and imperfect) research tool which allows you to search several full-text databases simultaneously.  While Polysearch can be a time-saver, it should be used with care for the following reasons:

• the basic search function searches numerous databases that are not particularly helpful to students of literature, leading to many unhelpful results.
• the list of "Most Useful Databases for English" available through the advanced search function is not exhaustive (for example, it omits JSTOR, one of the best full-text databases for literary research).
• Polysearch results mix apples with oranges: Polycat entries, simple bibliographic citations (with no abstract or full text access), bibliographic citations with an abstract (but no full-text access), and full-text articles from a subscription databases will all be included, when in fact it is easier to deal intelligently with only one such category of resource at a time.
• Students using Polysearch may falsely assume that they have obtained all relevant "hits" for a given research topic, when in fact Polysearch does not automatically search all available and relevant databases.  Thus, students are strongly advised to customize Polysearch  using the "my favorites" function to avoid excessive erroneous hits and to ensure that all relevant databases are consulted.

So, for example, if the database used to access the article is Project Muse, after the complete print-version publication information, you would add the following:

Project Muse. The Robert E. Kennedy Library, California Polytechnic State University. Date of access <http://muse.jhu.edu/>.

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