For many topics and assignments, the currency of the information you find, or in other words how recently it was published, may play a strong role in what information you select to cite in your research assignments.
A common assignment requirement is to limit your results to the past 5 or 10 years. This is easily done in most databases. Below is how to accomplish this in our most popular platforms. These are only a few examples, but other databases will have similar options.
EBSCO
In either EBSCO Discovery Service or individual EBSCO databases like Academic Search Complete, filters are located on every results page to help you limit your results. These are located below the main search box. Look for a All Time icon. To limit your results, select the drop down menu and select the desired date range:
Additionally, you can manually enter a desired date range by selecting All Filters and clicking Date Range:
You can sort articles by Date Newest instead of the default Relevance sort, but we recommend using the Publication Date range filter instead. Only re-sort by date if you absolutely want to see what's been published in the past few days/weeks/months first.
ProQuest
ProQuest also offers the ability to filter results by date. Look for the Publication date filter in the list of options, usually on the left side on most screens.
Westlaw Campus Research
Westlaw's search interface offers many options, including sorting by date. Look for the Date option, then choose one of the quick options (6 months, 12 months, or 3 years) or enter a specific date range.
