Research and Course Guides: HONORS 400: Research Seminar: Find Articles, Reports & Documents

Searching for Statistics within articles

Helpful Hints:

Sometimes statistics are buried within the text of a journal, magazine, or newspaper.

As you research, take the time to skim through your findings to discover potential sources of statistics.
Follow leads in the articles to locate other statistics.

Look in books and articles at graphs, charts, and diagrams to find statistical information.
Sometimes statistics are hidden within other articles but can't simply be found by searching "statistics."

When searching library databases, combine your topic search with a subject search for statistics.

Search Words:

Add these keywords to your topic searches to focus on statistics for your topic:

Search Examples:

Academic Search Ultimate This link opens in a new window
Access thousands of full-text journals covering information spanning a broad range of important areas of academic study including: anthropology, biology, chemistry, engineering, law, mathematics, multicultural studies, music, physics, psychology, women's studies and many other fields.
CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window
Single-themed weekly reports providing an overview, background and chronology of issues along with an assessment of current situation, tables, maps, pro/con statements, and bibliographies of key sources.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
A large digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources covering more than 50 disciplines primarily in the Arts & Sciences, Life Sciences, and Business. Coverage begins at the first issue of the journal and extends up to a publication date usually set in the past three to five years.
MasterFILE Complete This link opens in a new window
A collection of popular full-text magazines, reference books, videos, and other sources covering multiple subject areas.
ProQuest Central This link opens in a new window
Covering more than 160 subjects areas, this database includes scholarly journals, trade publications, magazines, books, newspapers, reports and videos.

Use Boolean Logic (AND, OR, NOT) to combine search concepts.

TOO FEW hits: OR to add synonyms; individual key words, NOT whole phrases; drop concept(s) with AND; truncate; consider other databases.

TOO MANY hits: AND another concept into search; use other available limiters in the database.

Truncation symbols (?, *, !, +) will provide variant spelling after the root word.

A wildcard (?, *) is a character that may be used in a search term to represent one or more other characters.

Do an advanced search and take advantage of the fields provided.

Use the subject headings/descriptors to find additional citations on your topic. If that does not work, use the keyword search.

You can also use limits (e.g., publication year, language, words in the title, etc.) to narrow your retrieval.

Set up an auto alert/RSS feed to monitor the research.