Speaker 1: When conducting academic research, accessing high quality and reliable sources is crucial. Hi everyone and welcome back to my channel. If you haven't yet subscribed to my channel, what are you waiting for? Come on guys, this is a new channel and your support would mean the world to me. So please subscribe to this channel. It will take less than a second for you to do, so go ahead and hit that subscribe button. Also, please ring the notification bell so you never miss any new content that I upload. Okay, now let's jump into the video. So I recently read an article that said that most researchers waste countless hours researching for articles in the wrong places. This was surprising to me because there is so much information that is now available. But many students and even seasoned researchers are not using the most effective tools to find the relevant literature. This inefficiency can set your research back significantly in your whole research process. So in this video, I'm going to share with you the 13 best academic databases that you should be using to find high quality, relevant literature for your research. These databases will not only save you time, but will also ensure that you're getting the most credible and valuable sources that are available. So here are some popular academic databases that you can use to find research papers, scholarly articles, and conference papers fast. So the first one is Google Scholar. So Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across various disciplines. It is easy to use, it has a broad coverage, and it provides links to full text when available. It's also freely accessible online. You can simply just type in, go into Google and type Google Scholar, and then you can literally just click on the first link that comes up, and then you start searching for articles. The second academic database is PubMed. So PubMed is a free database that is primarily for life sciences and biomedical topics, and it is maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, or NCBI. Some of the strengths of PubMed include the fact that it has extensive coverage of medical and health-related articles, including Medline and other resources. And PubMed is also freely accessible online. You can just go to PubMed and search for biomedical and life sciences literature. The next database is JSTOR, or JSTOR. So this is a digital library for academic journals, books, and primary sources across many disciplines. Some of the strengths include the fact that it offers high-quality peer-reviewed content, historical depth, with many archives going back to the first volume of each journal. So JSTOR is usually subscription-based, but many universities will provide you with free access. And it also has some free content available as well. The next academic database is IEEE Explore. So this is a digital library for research in engineering, computer science, and electronics. Some of the strengths include the fact that it is an authoritative source for the latest technical papers and conference proceedings. It offers access via subscription usually, but it is also commonly available through academic institutions. The next academic database is ACM Digital Library. And this is considered one of the best databases for computer science data, including software engineering, hardware and information systems, artificial intelligence, networking and communication, and data management. It has journals, conference proceedings, magazines, technical reports, and newsletters. So the ACM full-text collection currently has over 540,000 articles, while the ACM Guide to Computing Literature currently has more than 2.8 million bibliographic entries. Some of the features of this digital library include an advanced search feature, citation tools that you can manage and generate citations easily, and it also offers personalization. So there are options where you can save your searches, create alerts, and manage a personal bibliography. So some of the ways that you can access ACM Digital Library include your institution, right? So university or college libraries, most of them will subscribe to ACM Digital Library. And so you can access it through the library's website or electronic resources portal. You may also be able to get remote access, right? Because many institutions offer remote access via VPN or proxy servers. So all you need to do is log in with your student or staff credentials. Then there is also direct subscription. So you have individual subscription where you can subscribe to the ACM Digital Library directly through the ACM website, right? And this, of course, would be ideal if you do not have institutional access. But I'm assuming that most of you will if you are watching this video and if you're doing your thesis or dissertation research. Then another form of direct subscription is through ACM Membership. So joining ACM provides access to the Digital Library along with other member benefits. So there's also free access options such as open access articles, author copies. And those offer shared copies of their work. This is where the authors will share copies of their work on personal or institutional repositories. So you can access the ACM Digital Library website or you can access, again, it through your institution's library portal. The next database is Web of Science. So this is a multidisciplinary database of scholarly articles, conference proceedings, and other research outputs. Some of the strengths include a comprehensive citation index, which includes the Science Citation Index, the Social Sciences Citation Index, and the Arts and Humanities Citation Index. It is usually subscription based, but it's typically available via your academic institutions. Then the next database is Scopus. So Scopus is a large abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature, which includes scientific journals, books, and conference proceedings. It offers an extensive coverage across many different disciplines and it offers detailed analytics and citation data as well. It's usually subscription based, but again, it's usually being offered free of charge by universities. The next database is ProQuest. So ProQuest is a collection of databases that provide access to dissertations, theses, newspapers, periodicals, and other academic resources. Some of the strengths include the fact that it offers a wide range of sources, which includes dissertations and great literature. So it's usually subscription based, but again, it's usually accessible through universities and their libraries. So you can just visit ProQuest or, again, access it through your university library's website. The next academic database is PsychInfo. So this is a database that's maintained by the American Psychological Association, and it covers literature in psychology and other related fields, such as counseling. So some of the strengths include comprehensive coverage of psychology related topics, includes journals, books, and dissertations. It is usually subscription based also, but again, it's usually available through academic libraries. So the next database is ERIC, which stands for Education Resources Information Center. This is a database that provides access to education related literature, which includes journal articles, research reports, curriculum and teaching guides, conference papers, and books. Some of the strengths include the fact that it offers an extensive collection of education resources, and it is useful for educators and researchers in education. And ERIC is freely accessible online. The next database is ScienceDirect. So this is a database of scientific and technical research articles, primarily in the physical sciences and life sciences. It is a high quality peer reviewed database that offers high quality peer reviewed journals and extensive full text access. It is usually subscription based also, but again, it is usually accessible through academic institutions. The next database is Wiley Online Library. So this is a multidisciplinary collection of online resources that covers life, health, and physical sciences, social sciences, as well as the humanities. It offers a large collection of high impact journals and books. It again, usually is subscription based, but it's typically provided by universities. And the last database that I want to talk about today is SpringerLink. So SpringerLink provides access to millions of scientific documents from journals, books, series, protocols, and reference works. It offers an extensive coverage in various fields, particularly strong in natural sciences, engineering, and mathematics. Again, it is usually subscription based for access, but it's usually accessible through educational institutions. So these databases offer a wide range of academic articles and resources, and this makes them essential tools for researchers across various fields. So when you're using these databases, it's important to take advantage of their search filters and advanced search options to find the most relevant and high quality research articles for your specific topic. Next, I want to quickly go over some tips for accessing these databases without having individual subscription. So I mentioned university affiliation earlier. So if you're affiliated with a university, most of these databases will be accessible through your institution's library. All you will need to do is log into your university library's website, and then you will navigate to the electronic resources or databases section of that website. The next is remote access. So many universities offer remote access to their databases. You may need to log in using your university's credentials. So that would be like your student ID and your password, or through a VPN that is provided by your institution. The next tip is library services. So you can contact your university library for help if you need it. So the librarians can typically provide guidance on accessing certain databases, including any necessary login credentials or remote access methods that you may need information on. The next step is public libraries. So some public libraries provide access to certain academic databases. So what you need to do is check with your local library to see if they offer any relevant resources. The next step is free trials and open access. So some databases offer free trials or have open access sections where you can access content without a subscription. So all you need to do is look for those options if you do not have institutional access. And finally, the final tip that I have to share with you today is interlibrary loans. So if you cannot access a specific article or database, you should consider using interlibrary loan services. So many libraries can obtain materials from other institutions on your behalf. By utilizing these methods, you can effectively access a wide range of academic databases to support your research efforts. Okay, guys, thank you so much for watching. If you would like to get additional information on anything that is research related, then I encourage you again to please subscribe to my channel. Don't forget to ring the notification bell. And please ensure that you also share this with anyone who you think may benefit from this information. And also leave me a comment. Okay, let me know which of these steps or which of these academic databases that you have used in the past or that you will use now that you know about them. All right, guys, thank you so very much for watching. And I'll see you in my next video. Bye for now. Take care.