Video: Getting to Articles in Summon

An introduction to searching for articles using Summon, the general-purpose article search tool.

• Transcript

  If you are looking to find articles for a research assignment, a good place to start is on the library's home page. Clicking the Articles button below the search bar allows me to search for articles using Summon. Summon is a tool that references many of the databases the library subscribes to and compiles the results into one page. If you want to search in a specific database, you can click on the Databases link below the search bar.

  
  If I type my search terms into the search box, Summon will bring up a long list of articles that contain those words in the title. To help me narrow and focus my results, Summon has some helpful filters on the left menu. Under Refine your search, I can click the check box next to Peer-Reviewed to display only results from scholarly journals. If peer reviewed articles is a requirement for your assignment, make sure you check this box.

  
  If I look at the Content Type menu, I can select or deselect the types of articles I'm looking for. If I know I need research articles, I may uncheck the boxes for Conference Proceedings and Book Chapters. Because Summon references a lot of our databases, which covers specific disciplines, I will see articles from different disciplines in the same results list. This can be beneficial to get a bigger picture of the research available. But I want to focus my results.

  
  While all of these articles have my search terms in the title, they cover a wide range of topics. To narrow my results, I can use the Discipline and Subject Terms Filters found on the left hand side of the screen scrolling through the Disciplines list, I may decide I want to explore my topic as it relates to engineering, business, or even the arts. By choosing one of these, my search will reload with results that are much more confined to my chosen discipline or subject.

  
  Even when I choose a discipline or subject area, I will need to narrow my results further by adding more search terms. Summon has other filters like publication date that can help me further refine my results. As I read through the list of article titles, I look for ones that seem most relevant to my topic. I can read an articles abstract by clicking on the Quick Look button.

  
  If I want to keep that article, but also continue looking, I can save it in a temporary folder by clicking on the bookmark icon. Once I've saved several articles, I can print, email, or. Export them to a citation management system. All of these options will include a permanent link to the results. You can even format the citation in your preferred citation style let's say I want to read an article. By clicking on its title I will be taken out of Summon to view the whole article.

  
  It's important to note that this URL is often temporary and won't necessarily return me to the article later. So my best bet for saving the article is using Summon's folder or downloading the PDF. If you have any questions or trouble getting to an article, you can chat with a librarian for immediate assistance directly from the Summon search. If you have any questions about Summon or any other library tool, you can always ask a librarian for help.