Searching the Literature: The Basics

You've executed your search in a relevant search resource.  It's finally time to access some results!

This page explains how to access the full-text versions of results as well as how to save your search strategies and result sets for later use.    

Article databases collect information about journal articles, but don't typically collect the full-text journal articles themselves.  Look for the "Get It" button located within our databases to see if McMaster has access to the full-text article.  

Most databases allow you to save your search strategy to edit or re-run at a later date.  The links below explain how to save search strategies in some of our most popular databases.

Reference management tools allow you to create a personal library of results from a variety of database searches.  These tools can also help automate the creation of your reference list and in-text citations for publications.