Databases are on different platforms; some contain UC eLinks icons matching to holdings often leading to fulltext article. Consider what you are searching and identify or define all the synonyms for words - use a thesaurus or dictionary for help. Searching is a well developed skill to achieve high degrees of relevance in your retrieved output. For other subjects, consult Research Guides
Make sure that you can activate the UC eLinks via the VPN if connecting from off-campus
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Open Access (OA) confirms the trend of making research available without restrictions to a subscription. This is an active movement that began in the healthcare sector where patients needed access to medical information published in the clinical journals. Requires authors to retain the copyright and able to thus make available their articles in repositories. Research funding sources such as the NIH are now requiring OA copies to be deposited. The UC has an OA mandate in place since Nov 2013. Makes articles freely available if publicly funded. More publishers are on board with this. Scholarly communications has indeed significantly changed to a more open marketplace even though libraries are still buying significant amounts of scholarly content.
Blogs, opinion pieces, consumer trends, public opinion, some forms of news are all considered grey literature - neither black nor white; difficult to find and consistently cite but increasingly valuable for some forms of information and communication.