Infotrac Database

…how to use…

WHAT IS INFOTRAC?

Infotrac is an online database which provides access to full text articles
from journals from a variety of subject areas.

Infotrac is available from the Library Homepage. Select 'E Resources' then select 'Databases'.

Back

SEARCHING

• KEYWORD searches - this is the default search option. Click in the entry box and enter one or more words and press enter. Infotrac will search for your words within two words of each other in either direction. To extend this search so that the words will be found anywhere in the article, combine the words with AND or OR. ie. drugs and pregnancy
  

• SUBJECT searches - search for articles by topic
  

• RELEVANCE searches - useful if you need to extend your search - looks for words and word variations alone or in combination and lists the results with best matches first.
  

• ADVANCED searches - valuable if you wish to search specific fields such as author, article or journal title, dates etc.

Back

VIEWING ARTICLES

Search results are displayed as a citation list.  The words used to search will be highlighted.

• Click on the View link under each citation to see the information available. The View link indicates the content of the full record   eg. full text, abtract, images.
  

• To mark records for printing or viewing later, click on the Mark check box next to a citation. Articles can be marked from different searches and viewed all together at the end. To see the marked citations, click on View Mark List at the side of the page.

Back

RETRIEVING ARTICLES

At the bottom of each article or marked list a number of options
are available for retrieving records:

• To print, click on "Reformat". This will allow you to print from the browser by selecting print from the File menu. To return to InfoTrac, use the back function of your browser.

• To download onto a disk, choose "Reformat" and then Save as from the File menu. Select the drive and format and click OK. 

• To email a text version of the articles, type in an email address in form given and submit the request

Back

SEARCH TIPS

• Phrase searching - put words within quotation marks. ie. "life after death"

• Limit the search using the options below the search box. This allows you to limit by date, articles with text or add more words to the search. It is accessible from the list of citations by selecting "Limit search" from the side of the page.
  

• Previous searches - at the bottom of the search screen, a history of previous searches is listed. These can be viewed again and modified.

• Related articles - At the bottom of each record are links to other articles on the same subjects. Click on View under each subject heading to see these articles.

• Truncation Use * at the end of a word for alternative endings
  ie. child* will look for child, children, childhood etc.

Back