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| Instructional Guides |
| General Science Abstracts |
| What does General Science Abstracts cover? | What journals does GSA search? |
| How do I search GSA? | What else do I need to know? |
| How do I save, print, or download my search? | Where can I go for more help? |
Scope
General Science Abstracts indexes over 265 major English language science journals from both the United States and Great Britain. It covers science subject areas such as anthropology, astronomy, pollution biology, computers, earth sciences, medicine and health, and many more subjects from 1984 to date. Abstracts are present from 1993 to date. In it are indexed biographical sketches, symposia, conferences, review articles, selected letters to the editor, special issues of journals published as supplementary issues, review issues, laboratory guides, and book reviews. General Science Abstracts is updated weekly.
For complete up-to-date information on how to search General Science Abstracts, click on the HELP button at the top of the left hand side of the page with a question mark on it.
How do I start?Keyword Search:
The easiest way to get started is by using a keyword search. You can just type in terms relevant to your search topic in the boxes. For example, for articles on parenting behavior in fish, you might type in fish, parent, and behavior in the three boxes.
Tip: You can use an asterisk (*) at any point in a word to get all endings of that word. For ex: parent* will find parent, parents, parenting, etc.
How do I type the terms in?
When you are doing a keyword search you can use the following tools:
Boolean Operators:
Use these between your search terms:
AND - This limits your results to articles thatcontain BOTH of your search terms.
ex. fish AND behavior (This is the default)OR - This expands yourresults toinclude articles that contain EITHER of your search terms.
ex. babiesOR infants (use this for similar terms)NOT - This limits yourresults toarticles that contain yourfirst term BUT NOT your second.
ex. fish NOT shark*Truncation:
The symbol for truncationin General Science Abstractsis the asterisk ( * ). Using this symbol at the end of a search term will look for all varying endings of that word.
For example: comput* will find computing,computers, computation etc.
What now?
Search:
Click search and the computer will bring back a list of citations. Looking through these citations, you can use information such as the title and abstract to decide which articles are best for you to use in your research.
What do I do if I get too many results?
Limiters:
Hit your back button. Below the three entry boxes there are choices to limit your results. You can limit the publication year, as well as the record type. You can also add more keywords using AND to limit your results.
What do I do if I get too few results?
Three possibilities:
Hit your back button.
- Take out one keyword
- Use OR instead of AND
- Use different keywords
Printing, e-mailing and getting full-text ofan article
To print, e-mail, or save to a floppy disk:Click the e-mail or print button in the menu above your results. The default is to send ADD button next to the articles you are interested in. This places them in your "Folder." Then click on "Folder has items" at the top right part of the page. You can then click the Print, Email, or Save to Disk buttons at the top of that page. This makes creating your bibliography easy!
How do I get my article?
Full Text in the database:
There are no items in General Science Abstracts that are full-text.However, you may still be able to get full-text using SFX.
SFX
Once you select an article, click on it to get to the full record, where you can click on SFX. A pop-up box will tell you whether and where it is available full-text online. If it is not, it may have a link to COAST that will send you to the COAST record which will have the call number for the journal in the building.
COAST
You may have to find the article using COAST searching by journal name. Click on Journals in the left column, and type in the title of the journal that the article you want is in. Coast will then list the library's holdings (if any) of that journal.
ILLIAD
Your final resort is to request the article through Interlibrary Loan, using ILLIAD. This is a free service that will get you the article from another library. It will either be emailed to you or you will be able to pick it up at CSULB's library. This process takes 5-7 working days.
What journals does GSA search?
General Science Abstracts searches263 major journals. Go to the GSA list of journals.
General Science Abstracts is accessed through First Search. In FirstSearch, results which are in journals that CSULB owns have a green "Cal State Univ Long Beach" indicator in the citation. This only means that CSULB has some volumes of that journal. We may not necesarily have the volume of that particular article.
visit the reference desk on the first floor of the library,
try 24/7 chat with a librarian, or
set up an appointment with Cathy Outten, the Science and Mathematics librarian.
This page was created byCathy Outten, Science Librarian
California State University, Long Beach