In the below example, the black and white “ref jersey” icon in the second column indicates that American Anthropologist is refereed (peer-reviewed).
You may have noticed that Ebsco databases look different this year! There has been a major redesign, and while the databases have the same basic search tools and features, some of them may be in different places. Here are some tips to get you started:
What's the same:
What's different:
Don't panic! Librarians are here to help you navigate all MU databases! Use email, library chat or make an appointment!
Source: Yavapai College Library
Most research databases allow you to limit your searches to scholarly or peer reviewed articles. Many databases will return full text articles and abstracts (summaries) of the articles.
Click the article title to get started. If you cannot view the full text of the article in a particular database, click either the "Get Article" or "Link to Full Text" link to see whether it is available in another library database. If the article is unavailable through the Monmouth University Library, it may be requested through Interlibrary Loan.
Subscription databases are available to Monmouth University students, faculty and staff. For remote log in, use your university username and password.
View the entire list of MU databases in the A to Z List of Databases - or view Databases by Subject.
Need an article in a popular magazine like The Atlantic or National Geographic? No problem! Flipster has current, full issues of popular magazines that you can virtually "flip" through!
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Artificial intelligence (AI) is a fact of life and has been for quite some time. It's only recently that we have seen it incorporated into apps for a mainstream audience. Always ask your instructor about their policy on using AI for class assignments.
Q:What is AI?
A: AI is the use of computers to imitate the behavioral aspects of human reasoning and learning.
Q:What is ChatGPT?
A: ChatGPT is a chatbot and virtual assistant that uses a Large Language Model to sort and organize data and language into a desired length, format, style, level of detail, and language. It relies on input (prompts) from users and training on data and language to mimic human language patterns and generate responses. Chat GPT has a search component, but that was not part of the original software.
Q: What is a Large Language Model?
A: A Large Language Model is a computation structure that is capable of generating language or other natural (everyday) language processing tasks. It is "trained" on massive amounts of data that it can use to predict language patterns in speech and text.
Q: How can I search the web using AI?
A: ChatGPT released ChatGPT Search in October 2024, joining a plethora of other AI-assisted search tools. ChatGPT Search will choose to search the web based on what you ask, or you can manually choose to search by clicking the web search icon. Most search engines now incorporate AI in their search function.
Q: Should I use ChatGPT as a research tool?
A: A June 2025 study published in arXiv yielded extremely concerning results about the effects of long-term AI use on the brain's cognitive and analytical ability. Over time, study subjects showed significantly reduced capacity to learn, understand and recall information due to diminished activity in the brain's neural pathways. This is the first of what are sure to be many studies on this topic. Current thinking is to proceed with extreme caution, not only with everyday research but also with academic research.
Sources:
Kosmyna, N., Hauptmann, E., Yuan, Y.T., Situ, J., Liao, X., Beresnitzky, A. V., Braunstein, I. & Maes, P. (2025). Your brain on ChatGPT: accumulation of cognitive debt when using an AI assistant for essay writing task. arXiv.
Russell, S.J. & Norvig, P. (2021). Artificial intelligence: A modern approach (4th ed.). Hoboken: Pearson.
Wong, A. (2025) The entire Internet is reverting to beta. The Atlantic.