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Horticulture Research Guide: Finding Articles & More

Library Databases - for scholarly sources & reference/background information

The library subscribes to some databases specific to horticulture, as well as some general subject databases, to help you with your research. You may have to enter your myMCC username and password if you're off campus or using your own computer.

Searching Gale OneFile: Gardening and Horticulture

Whether you're starting with a specific research question or just exploring a topic, searching a horticulture-specific database like Gale OneFile: Gardening and Agriculture is a good starting point.

  • Use specific keywords, not questions
  • Use the database's limiters: full text, scholarly peer-reviewed limiters, and date range
  1. Go to Gale OneFile: Gardening and Horticulture.
  2. Click on Advanced Search.
  3. Type some keywords in the search box(es), then press Enter.

Example: medicinal plants

The results show you information from a variety of formats: magazines, academic journals, books, news, and more. If your instructor asks your to use scholarly sources, click on Academic Journals.

When you find an article you want to read, click the title. From there, you can:

  • View the full text of the article. Keep an eye out for more keywords to revise your search!
  • Save the article to your Google Drive
  • Get the article's citation (Cite tool)
  • Print, email, or copy the link to the article (Permalink tool)

Consider revising your search with different keywords. Be specific with your search words. Medicinal plants has many more results than if you searched plants as medicine.

Suggested Keywords

Some suggested keywords for searching library databases:

  • botany
  • horticulture
  • plants
  • gardening
  • ecology
  • human-plant relationships
  • plants and civilizations
  • nursery
  • greenhouse
  • plant reproduction
  • plant biology
  • plant taxonomy
  • perennials
  • annuals
  • landscape/landscaping