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PE 602: Research Foundation in Sport: Using References

Finding References

As you find books, articles, eBooks, websites, etc. to support your research, you'll want to take advantage of the research that was used to write those sources. Using the Bibliography, Works Cited, or References list from a solid resource you've already found is an efficient way to research. In books, you may find the resources listed at the end of the book, at the end of a chapter, or at the end of sections within a chapter.

Using Book Sources

If you are looking for a book:

Take the citation information provided for books, and search in OneSearch to see if SMSU owns the book. If SMSU doesn't own it, try a search in other Minnesota libraries by using the "All MnPALS Libraries" option in OneSearch.  You may want to do a title search when you look for the book, or often a combination of major words in the title and the author's name is effective.  For example, if this is the citation I found...

Etzel, E. F., & Watson, J. C. (2014). Ethical issues in sport, exercise, and performance psychology. Fitness Information Technology.

I could search for ethical issues sport exercise performance psychology (keywords from the book title) or I could try type Etzel ethical issues sport (keywords from the title and the author's last name).

Using Articles

If you want to find a full-text article:

There are many options to search for full-text articles. For example, you could choose to search in a specific database, search multiple databases at once, or search in OneSearch by article title or journal title. 

  1. Searching in a specific database. This option works great if you are lucky enough to get the correct database that the journal is indexed in. As you've seen by using the databases, not all publications are indexed in all databases. If you choose to do this option, you could either type in the article title into the search box or look for a Publications tab or search option where you can determine if the journal you need is in that database. While you may have luck with this route, it might not be the most effective.
  2. Searching multiple databases at once. If you look at the A to Z Database List, you'll see entries for Gale Database Selection Menu and EBSCO Database Selection Menu. From those lists, you can select to search in all of the databases at once. Once you get to the search screen, you could either search by the article title and/or part of the title and the author's name, or you could browse a Publications list (in most databases) to see if the publication is available in the databases.
  3. You could also try using the OneSearch option on the library homepage. If you search for the article title and multiple results are returned (especially if your title isn't unique), you may want to use the filters on the left to narrow your options.  This route is most useful and efficient if you have a unique article title or if you have no idea which database(s) to search in.
  4. Using the Journals search in OneSearch.  When you are in OneSearch, you'll see a Journals option across the top of the page. Using the Journal Search allows you to look by Journal Title or ISSN. After typing in the journal title, you'll get a list of results indicating if SMSU holds the title in print or electronic format. If the journal you are interested in is full-text in a database, it will tell you which database(s) have it. If it is a print title we have at SMSU, it will show you the holdings so you can see the publication date you are interested in. If we don't have it available full-text, it will let you know that as well. (Note that doesn't mean you can't get a copy of the article, but you'd need to request it via Interlibrary Loan.).  
  5. You could also use the eJournals tab on the library's homepage to type in the journal's title or ISSN and follow the trail for that title (if available).  Unless you have a very unique article title, choosing option 5 or 6 is an efficient way to find if SMSU has a journal article available in full-text.

For example, this is the journal article I'm trying to find:

Parker, P. C., Daniels, L. M., & Goegan, L. D. (2023). Testing a measure of perceived sport control in student athletes. Journal of Sport Behavior, 46(3), 55–66.

If I wanted to see if I have access to this article via SMSU, I would go to the Library homepage, click on the eJournals tab, and type Journal of Sport Behavior (the title of the journal) into the search box.  Results would tell me that this journal is available in these three databases:

  • EBSCOhost SportDISCUS with Full Text
  • Nursing & Allied Health Premium
  • Psychology Database

I could click on one of those database links to get to the journal landing page. From there, I could either search by date or do a Search within Publication search for the title. 

In this example, I do have a unique article title, so I could also have success using the OneSearch box on the library homepage.  In that case, I'd type in testing measure perceived sport control student athletes and be able to find the title relatively quickly. However, if the title I'd been looking for was something more generic like the title in this citation: Cooper, K. J. (2011). Should college athletes be paid to play? Diverse: Issues In Higher Education, 28(10), 12-13 - then doing an article title search in OneSearch would likely bring back too many results to want to sift through.