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Tutorials & Guides: Everything

About You: independent, curious, doing research on your own time (often odd hours). You're looking for guidance on how use the best resources effectively and efficiently. Sound like you? This guide will assist you in being your best researcher self!

Analyzing Poetry

Where do I find What?

I'm Looking for... Try this Type of Source...
Background information An reference source through the Library, like Britannica.
A scholarly article MCPHS Smart Search, or one of the Library's subject specific databases.
A deep-dive on a topic A book written by an expert in the field.
Quick information about a specific drug, disease or treatment.  A point-of-care resource like Micromedex, Lexicomp or DynaMed

What Information is Where?

Type of Resources

It is...
eResource Any electronic research material: online journal articles, ebooks, websites, etc.
Database A searchable collection of articles and other academic writings available through the Libraries. You'll find these under Articles & Databases.
Catalog Where you can search for locations of books, videos, and links to eResources.
Research Guide A small website organized by a Librarian around a subject, course or topic so that it's easy to find the print and eResources for it. (For example, this is a Research Guide!)
Library Website The digital front door to the MCPHS Libraries; your access point for all our services and reources.

Search Strategy Suggestions: Boolean

Boolean Connector Purpose

AND

Connects different concepts (keywords).

Narrows down the number of results.

OR

Connects synonyms.

Expands the number of results.

NOT

Excludes a concept.

Use with extreme caution (even librarians don't use this one much).

How To Read a Call Number

Here at MCPHS, we use Library of Congress call numbers to organize our print books. A call number is a combination of letters and numbers that acts like an address to finding things on the shelves. Read call numbers from left to right, and top to bottom.

This chart will help you decode them a bit more. If you still have questions please contact the Reference Desk!

The first set of letters is alphabetical.

H
45
.B62
1990

HA
126
.F99
K9
1987

HB
12
.I90
1975

HC
13
.C55

The following set of numbers is in numerical order.

B
45
.H432
1980

B
427
.K77
1967

B
1200
.P95
A66
1990

B
1231
.C33
I7
1981

The following letters (after the decimal point) are alphabetical.

KF
456
.A43
E45
1993

KF
456
.B99
1990

KF
456
.K99
1987

KF
456
.L70
1990

The following numbers are in decimal order.

Note that .C263 comes between .C26 and .C27.

L
901
.C25
1977

L
901
.C26
1993

L
901
.C263
1988

L
901
.C27
1976

There may be another line of letters and numbers.

These will be in alphabetical and decimal order

PS
3553
.A4
A15
1977

PS
3553
.A4
M29

PS
3553
.A4
M9
v.5

PS
3553
.A4
Z41
1980

A publication date may follow.

In order by date or “nothing before something”

B1200
.P95
A65
1990

B1200
.P95
A65
2001

B1200
.P95
A87

B1200
.P95
A87
1966

A copy or volume number may follow.

B1200
.P95
A65
c.1

B1200
.P95
A65
c.2

B1200
.P95
A87
1966
v.1

B1200
.P95
A87
1966
v.2

Cited In/Cited By

diagram of references feeding into an article and citing articles coming out

Databases: Search Page Layout

Layout of common elements of a database search page.

Databases: Search Results Page

Layout and standard features of a database search results page.

Step-by-Step: Getting to an Academic/Scholarly/Peer-Reviewed Article

So you need to find academic/scholarly/peer-reviewed article(s). These are the steps to get from your initial search results in MCPHS Smart Search to articles that might do what you need:

1) Double-Check Your Access
When you're looking at the search results page, if you see a yellow bar at the top that says "Welcome Guest. MCPHS member? Log in for full-access" then click & log in with your MCPHS username and password.

To ensure that you have full-access to research content, be sure to click the yellow bar at the top of the page that reads "Welcome Guest. MCPHS member? Log in for full-access". You will be brought to a separate page where you can enter your MCPHS login information.

2) Refine Your Results 
The great thing about Smart Search is you get all sorts of information from a variety of sources! But if you already know a bit about the topic and just need academic/scholarly/peer-reviewed article(s), then tell Smart Search to just show you those by clicking on Scholarly (Peer Reviewed).

Smart Search provides limits that will enable you to refine your search results. If you know that you require academic/scholarly/peer-reviewed article(s) for your assignment, you can limit your results to only show those that are Scholarly (Peer Review) Journals by clicking the option found on the left-hand side of the screen.

3) Get the Article 
Since we have articles from a wide variety of journals, databases and publishers (which are all set up slight differently), sometimes there are different looking links and sometimes it takes a couple extra clicks for you to get there. You'll probably see one or all of these:

Whatever the link calls itself, it's always listed here in the Search Results:

The link to get to the full article may look slightly different depending on the publisher, but it's always located immediately underneath the short description of each result.

and here after you click on the Article Page:

If you click the title of an article, you'll go to the Article Page, which has more information about the article. You'll always find a link for the full article on the upper left-hand side of the page.

and in either case, start by clicking on the first link option.

When you click on  you'll find yourself here:

When you click on Get Full Text (MCPHS) you'll find yourself on a page that works to connect you to the full article several ways. Start with the Get It Online option, then try Search for More.., and lastly use the Not Available at MCPHS - Request It link.

  • When there's a link under Get It Online click on it. (If there are multiple, click on the first one.)  
  • If there are no links there, use the link under Search for More... to see if it's available for free through Google Scholar.
  • If that does work, use the link under Not available at MCPHS - Request It to request the article through Interlibrary Loan. We'll work to get you an electronic copy in a few business days.

4) It's Not Working 

  • If you're trying to get to an ebook in the MCPHS catalog, make sure you click on Full text (MCPHS users only) link on the search results page.
    For ebooks select the Full text (MCPHS users only) link on the Search Results Page
  • If you get to this page and something's acting strange, click the Get Help - Report a Problem link so that we can work on fixing it!
    On the Get Full Text (MCPHS) page, if you experience broken or non-functioning links, be sure to report the problem through Get Help.
  • Try using the Journal Search (from the Library homepage) to search for a known item - when you already have the citation and need to full article.
     
  • Then, contact the Reference Desk for assistance with getting to the article. 
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