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Seton Hall Science Research Guides

What is a Database?

A database is an electronic (online) collection of information about journal articles, books, and other research materials.  Many databases include or link to full-text articles.  Some have only abstracts or citations (these are often referred to as “Indexes”). Databases that Seton Hall libraries subscribe to are found by clicking on the "Databases" tab on the library home page.
 

Individual databases can be searched by one or more fields such as title, author, subject or keyword.  You can usually add restrictions such year of publication, language, peer-reviewed ("scholarly") or full-text to further narrow your search. Often you will need to select "advanced search" to take advantage of these tools.  It's worth taking the  time to learn how to search databases well - it will save you time and trouble in the long-run! 

You can also search multiple databases at once using the SHUsearch box on the library home page.

Library Tutorials, including using SHUsearch

HELP is at hand

For help in using databases: