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Mat-Su College: Biology

A guide for students taking Biology courses, particularly BIOL 102, at Mat-Su College.

How to get to Academic Search Premier

Academic Search Premier has millions of articles covering most academic subjects. It is a good place to start your research.

How do I use Academic Search Premier?

Academic Search Premier has a lot of buttons and search boxes. Don't be overwhelmed. Focus on the search bars at the top of the page. Enter your search terms on the first search bar and click "Search":

A screenshot of the Academic Search Premier interface showing the search boxes at the top of the page

You should then see articles that match your search terms. Use the "Filter" button (1) to open up a list of ways to filter out articles (2):

Search results in Academic Search Premier with filter options indicated

In this results page, you can narrow down your search results to peer reviewed items by clicking the "Peer reviewed" button and making sure your search results have the "Peer reviewed" indicator:

Peer review filter button and peer review label for an article in search results

Finally, you can access the full text of articles by clicking "Access Options" or "Check Library for FulL Text."

Clicking the title of an article will give you a detailed record with a summary (or abstract) of the article; information on when and where it was published, and who wrote it; and a button to quickly and automatically generate a citation (this button looks like a quotation mark):

Screenshot of Academic Search Premier detailed result page showing the Cite button

In the "Cite" popup, select "APA 7th Edition" or your prefered style from the "Select Style" dropdown menu.