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Doctoral Research Toolkit: Discovery Search

Tools and information to support your success as a doctoral student.

Discovery Search

The Discovery Search box, accessible via the library home page, searches most of the library databases at once. For a full list of databases that are searched within the Discovery Search, see the "Databases Searched Within the Discovery Search" section on this page.

Visit A-Z Databases for a full list of the library's databases and their descriptions.

Databases Searched Within the Discovery Search

  • Academic OneFile
  • Academic Search Ultimate
  • Agriculture
  • America:  History and Life with Full Text
  • Archival Films and Newsreels Collections
  • Biography
  • Biography and Genealogy Master Index
  • Book Review Index
  • Business
  • Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery Reference Center
  • Business Insights:  Global
  • Business Source Ultimate
  • College
  • Communications and Mass Media
  • Computer Science
  • Contemporary Women's Issues
  • Criminal Justice Abstracts with Full Text
  • Criminal Justice (GALE OneFile)
  • Culinary Arts
  • Diversity Studies
  • eBook Academic Collection
  • Education Full Text
  • Economics and Theory
  • Educator's Reference Complete
  • Entrepreneurial Studies Source
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Environmental Studies
  • Environmental Studies and Policy
  • ERIC
  • Films on Demand
  • Fine Arts
  • Gardening and Horticulture
  • Gender Studies
  • General OneFile
  • Global Issues
  • GreenFILE
  • Health and Medicine
  • Health and Wellness
  • Hospitality and Tourism
  • Information Science
  • Informe Academico
  • International Security and Counter Terrorism Reference Center
  • JSTOR
  • LegalTrac
  • Literature Resource Center
  • LitFinder
  • MEDLINE Ultimate
  • Military & Government Collection
  • Military and Intelligence
  • News
  • Nursing and Allied Health
  • Opposing Viewpoints
  • Physical Therapy and Sports Medicine
  • Political Science Complete
  • Pop Culture Studies
  • PsycArticles
  • Psychology
  • Regional Business News
  • Religion and Philosophy
  • Science
  • ScienceDirect
  • U. S. History (Gale in Context)
  • U. S. History (Gale OneFile)
  • Vocations and Careers
  • War and Terrorism
  • World History (Gale in Context)
  • World History (Gale OneFile)
  • World Scholar:  Latin America & the Caribbean
  • ABI/INFORM Collection
  • Chilton Library
  • Dissertations & Theses Global
  • IBISWorld
  • Mergent Online
  • Nexis Uni
  • Political Science
  • Public Health
  • SAGE Research Methods
  • Security Issues Online

Accessing Discovery Search's Advanced Search

The Discovery Search's Advanced Search screen offers multiple keyword boxes and a host of limiting options that can be used to refine your search. To access the Advanced Search screen, leave the keyword search box empty, and click on the "Search" button:

Click the search button

Next, click on Advanced Search:

Use the "Select a Field" limiters to the right of the search boxes to limit by Author, Title, Subject Terms, Abstract, and more. The options ibelow offer limiters for library availability, peer-reviewed journals, and publication date. 

Once you perform a search, additional limiting options are available at the top of your search results:

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Research Appointments

Click button to schedule a research appointment

The CSU librarians can support you during the research process with personalized reference services. We are happy to help you with the following tasks:

  • Accessing and using the CSU Library databases in order to create a peer-reviewed literature review with library resources
  • Using free personalized database folders within multiple database platforms to organize your research
  • Brainstorming keywords and recommending search limiters to use
  • Locating the dissertations and theses that may support and inform your research process