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Having literally thousands of database search results can be a real drag. Literally no one wants to look through all of those.
Luckily, you can use database limiters to help refine your search result number and narrow things down by relevancy. All databases have this ability, but may vary in options and the way they look. Either way, you have a lot of filtering options!
1. Limit by Date Range: You can use the scroll bar to limit by date range or just type in the years in the date range boxes. If you decide to type in the dates, make sure to hit enter so the results can update.
2. Limit by Source Type: From this section, you can choose to limit by types of publication materials including journal articles, book chapters, dissertations, reports, and more. You can choose more than one option at a time. To see more options, click on Show more.
3. Limit by Subject: Major Heading: This is one of my favorite ways to limit. Using this limiter, you can see what categories your search results fall under. Select as many as you would like (and don't worry if the hit count numbers don't add up!) and click Update near the bottom. This is particularly useful for helping to narrow down a large set of results.
4. Limit by Tests & Measures and Methodology: Some databases have this feature, and others don't. Tests & Measures helps you find specific measurement tools that are referenced in your search results. Methodology allows you to limit by research article type (empirical, qualitative, quantitative, interviews, etc.).
Tutorials created by: Eugenia Opuda Gifs created in Camtasia or taken online from Giphy
