InfoTrac custom journals

What is it?

InfoTrac Custom Journals indexes articles from business and trade publications with a European focus. Subjects covered include finance, acquisitions and mergers, international trade, money management, new technologies and products, business trends, investments and banking. The database goes back to 1982, although coverage of individual titles may vary, and the majority of articles are from 1990 onwards.

How do I log in?

Do not use Internet Explorer when searching Infotrac. It has a fault which makes displaying the full text of articles very difficult. Use Firefox or Google Chrome instead. Go to the InfoTrac home page at http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb?athens_ident=yes Enter your Athens username and password and click Login>>.
You can also go to InfoTrac Custom Journals using our Databases section of the Search for menu, then click on InfoTrac Custom Journals. Enter your Athens username and password and click Login >>. Click Proceed at the Infotrac screen.  InfoTrac Custom Journals is already selected, click Continue >> to display the basic search screen.

How do I search?

Enter one or more words in the Find box. Select a search option by clicking one of the radio buttons below the Find box; Subject, Keyword or Entire document. The database is set to use a keyword search. You can also choose More search options. This allows you to limit your search to: full text articles, peer reviewed articles (solid academic research), or a range of dates. Click the blue Search button.

You can also choose a Subject guide search when you want to browse a listing of subjects, people, products, locations and organizations that contain word or words you entered. From this listing, you can select a term and see a results list of matching items, or navigate through the Subject Guide by selecting subdivision and related subjects links.

Use Publication Search to search for a single edition, volume, or issue of a particular publication and retrieve all its available documents. Types of publications you can search for may include magazines, journals, newspapers, reference works, and other source materials, depending on the database(s) you are searching.

Advanced Search gives you a framework for building as simple or as complex a search as you want. You can search for terms from one index, or from multiple indexes linked by AND, OR, or NOT. If enabled, you may limit your search (click the More search options link if search limit fields are not displayed).

How do I combine search terms?

The most common way to combine search terms is to use and, or and not

• And specifies that both words must occur in the part of a record you're searching for that record to match. For example, employee and motivation finds only those records in which both the word employee and the word motivation occur.
• Or specifies that one or the other or both of the words must occur in the part of a record you're searching for that record to match. For example, dreams or daydreams finds records in which either the word dreams or the word daydreams or both occur.
• Not specifies that the word before the operator must occur but the word after the operator must not occur for a record to match. For example, crime not murder finds all records in which the word crime occurs except the ones in which the word murder also occurs.

Sometimes you might want to find more than just exact matches to a search term. Wildcards let you substitute symbols for one or more letters. With wildcards, you can match both the singular and plural forms of a word, words that begin with the same root or words that can be spelled in different ways. You can even match words that you're not sure how to spell! There are three wildcard operators:

• An asterisk (*) stands for any number of characters, and is useful when you want to find all words that share the same root. For example, pigment* matches pigment, pigments, pigmentation. You must enter at least three (3) non-wildcard characters. An asterisk can also be used within a word, but the other wildcards are more precise for this kind of use.
• A question mark (?) stands for exactly one character and is especially useful when you're uncertain of a spelling. For example, a search like relev?nce means you can match the word relevance even if you can't remember whether it's spelled with ance or ence. A question mark is also useful for finding certain words with variant spellings. For example, defen?e finds both defense (American) and defence (British and Canadian). Multiple question marks in a row stand for the same number of characters as there are question marks. For example, psych????y matches either psychology or psychiatry but not psychotherapy.
• An exclamation point (!) stands for one or no characters and is especially useful when you want to match the singular and plural of a word but not other forms. For example, product! matches product and products but not productive or productivity. The exclamation point can also be used inside a word to match certain variant spellings. For example, colo!r matches both color (American) and colour (British).

If you see a message about a search being invalid, try adding more letters before the wildcard character.

How do I see search results?

If your search is successful, you will see a results list with items matching your search criteria. There are tabs at the top of the list, click them to select the type of material you want. There are also options to limit your search further, such as "peer reviewed". Click the box to apply the limit. If no results can be found, you will see a message asking you to revise your search or select one of the "Did You Mean?" alternate terms.

How do I view full text?

If the full text is available, you will see either full text and images or  PDF file icons at the foot of the record. Click them to display the full text. When you are finished click Close this window at the top left. An A icon at the foot of a record means that an abstract is available. You can check availability from all our other suppliers by clicking the  green 360 Link icon this will open a window to our serials solutions system to enable you to check for links to the article.

How do I print, email, save and export to RefWorks?

Mark the records by clicking the box beside the title. Go up to the top of the screen and click on the small yellow folder labelled Marked items. To print, click the print icon on the left. Choose either a citation list (short format - saves paper) or a full document (includes abstract, not full text!), then click print to proceed. To email, click the email icon and enter your email address. Click send. To save, select citation tools then choose your preferred format, and click save. At the dialogue window, click save again, then specify your filename and destination (either the student workspace or a USB pen drive). To export to refworks, select citation tools, then click the export to refworks button and the blue export button. The RefWorks window will pop up - if you have a popup blocker on your PC, you will need to switch it off. To log in, click the blue Athens users link. The records will then be imported. For more information on RefWorks, have a look at the handy hints guide on SMILE.

How do I log off?

When you have finished searching, click the logout link at the top right of the screen.

More help?

Contact the Business team or ask at The Base to make an appointment