One way to find information is to use databases.

What sort of information is contained in databases?

• lists of journal articles, book chapters, book reviews, dissertations, conference papers, etc.

How is the information presented?

Each item listed in the search results is represented by a reference, which contains pertinent information.

• author
• title of article or book chapter etc.
• title of journal or book etc.
• volume and number
• date of publication
• pages

Place your mouse pointer over the reference below to view the different elements of a reference:

Whitehead C, Wundke R, Crotty M, Finucane P. (2003). Evidence-based clinical
practice in falls prevention: a randomised controlled trial of a falls prevention service. Australian Health
Review : a publication of the Australian Hospital Association. 26(3):88-97.

There is also usually an abstract or summary of the article.

Online databases index journal articles. The CSU Library does not necessarily hold all the journals you will find during a database search. Sometimes the full text (also called the full article) is available from a database, but often it isn't. There may be links to other databases or to the library catalogue, so that you can determine its availability. However, the library doesn't necessarily hold all the journals that you find on a database.