LibGuides: Microbiology: Pinpoint an Article to Review

Understand Your Assignment

Word Count Requirements

Depending on your instructor, the article you review must have a minimum word count of either 800 -1,000 words (Chaney) or 2,000 words (Drummonds).

For 800 - 1,000 words (Chaney): the article you review needs to be around 1 page, single-spaced in 12pt font, which is equivalent to 1,000 words.

For 2,000 words (Drummonds): the article you review needs to be at least 2 pages, single-spaced in 12pt font. This is equivalent to 2,000 words.

Limit your searches by word count when looking for popular/everyday sources such as magazines and news to make sure your article meets the assignment requirements.

Linking to Articles in Library Databases

If you have trouble linking to articles, try this guide:

Finding & Using Permalinks
by Shawna Thorup Last Updated May 7, 2024 302 views this year

Distinguish between Information Source Types

Categorize Sources
Understand how sources can be categorized in three ways in order to conduct library research effectively.
Source Types - Show Me©Information Literacy from NoodleTools
Pick a source type to explore including how to recognize find, evaluate, use, and cite it.

Try Our Best Bet Tools

Locate Professional / Scholarly Journal Articles

Biological Science Database This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Search for any microbiology topic.
*This is a Traveler resource. The Traveler Statewide Resource project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
PubMed This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Limit by Text Availability to "Free full text" and "full text" on your results page.
Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
Use SEARCH OPTIONS to set "Number of page" to greater than 2 to find scholarly and everyday sources.

PLOS ONE Microbiology
Browse recent and search for older articles in this premier open access journal.

Locate Popular Science Magazine & News Articles

Limit search results by word count to only include articles that meet the minimum requirements.

Gale General OneFile This link opens in a new window
Skim results on the first tab for magazine articles, or switch tabs to NEWS.
Research Library This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Limit results to Magazines or Newspapers.
*This is a Traveler resource. The Traveler Statewide Resource project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

News Articles

US Newsstream This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Select any article you find to count as a popular or everyday source.
*This is a Traveler resource. The Traveler Statewide Resource project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Access World News This link opens in a new window
Use the dropdown to select Word Count to search for news from academic to video sources. You can only pick More than 500 words, so be careful to make sure your pick meets the 2,000 word minimum.

Limit by Word Count

Gale databases

To find articles of at least 2,000 words:

Select Advanced Search
Enter the desired word count number into the first box preceded by the symbol for "greater than": >1999 (greater than 1,999 = 2,000 or more) [NOTE: Either symbol > (greater than) or < (less than) can be used with any number to adjust the word count of results.]
Change search field to Word Count
Type search terms or keywords into next box(es)
Change search field to Basic Search
Search

ProQuest databases

Select Advanced Search
Type search terms or keywords into first box
Enter WC(>1999) in the second box [NOTE: WC is the search code for Word Count. You can use the > (greater than) or < (less than) symbols with a specific number, or you can enter a word count range, such as 2000-3000. Just put the symbol and number inside a parenthesis.]
Search

Advanced: You can create this search directly on the basic search screen by typing: keywords AND WC(>1999)

Academic Search Premier (EBSCO)

Select Search Options
Set Number of pages to greater than, less than, equal to, or all.