SPMT 1200: Introduction to Sport Management (Fierke) Fall 2024

Because the database SPORTDiscus is on a trial basis, our institutional access will only last for the duration of the trial. 

Boolean Operators

Databases use precision searching and specific language to organize records, which means that we must use keywords, Boolean Operators (AND,OR, NOT), and limiters to effectively search in them. 

AND: Narrows search results. For example: Cat AND Dog will result in sources that have both of these words contained in them.

OR: Broadens search results. For example: Cat OR Dog will result in any source that has either of these words contained in them.

NOT: Excludes certain keywords from search results. For example: Cat NOT Dog will result in only sources that have the word cat contained in them. 

Truncation: Use an asterisk * to truncate and search for variations of a word, including plural forms. For example: immigrat* searches for the words immigrant, immigrants, immigrate, immigration

Wildcard: Use the question mark to represent more than one letter in a word, especially for words that do not form their plural by adding "s" or "es" and instead have different spellings. For example: wom?n searches for both women and woman. 

Phrases: Use quotation marks to search for words as a phrase rather than separate single words. For example: "undocumented immigrant" will search for these two words together as a phrase. This also helps keep your search results narrow and more focuses on the topic you are looking for. 

Primary Sources in the sciences refer to direct evidence or original research that provides new data, ideas, or findings. They are most often published in scholarly journals or presented at academic conferences. These articles or presentations mark the first publication of such research; they present new data and detail the researcher’s methodology and results.

Primary sources in the sciences are factual and provide the results of experiments and trials. Most primary source articles in the sciences have this basic structure:

This infographic was taken from the "Explore Information - Primary & Secondary Sources - Sciences" Libguide from the Uconn Library. It is  licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

You may be asked to search for or encounter "empirical research." A common primary source in the sciences is empirical research. Empirical Research, or empirical study, refers to research based on primary data like observations or experiments.

Some ways to search for primary sources is by using keywords like "empirical research," "empirical study," "randomized controlled trial," "case study."