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Database Searching Basics: Author Search

Practical guide covering fundamentals of database searching technique.

How to Search for Articles - by Author

Sharpening the focus

Most databases provide specialized index fields that allow for targetted searching of specific elements, depending on the nature of your search terms.

Author searching

If your topic focus is the articles of a specific author, you can narrow your search results by performing the following author-search strategy in Academic Search Complete:

1. Click open the index field menu adjacent to the first search box, find and select the AU (author) index code.

2.  Enter the name of the author you are researching in the adjacent search box.

3. Click the Search button to perform.

Your search will retrieve a list of articles published by the author that are indexed by the database. 

Author vs. (Author) Subject Search

Sometimes its necessary to differentiate an author's works from works about an author. 

Author & Subject Searching (respectively) furnish the tools to do just that.


Author Search:

 

...for Works by an Author 

An author search retrieves records of published articles or books by a specific author in a database.


Subject Search: 

 

... for Works about an Author.

Subject searching an author's name retrieves research about specific authors:

• biographical data,

• critical reviews,

• commentary,

• historical information, etc.

 

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