Sources to get deeper

Databases

Databases encompass data that are homogeneous for content and format, accessible from remote servers, structured in such a way that you can retrieve them through specific search criteria. 

Databases can be:

• factual: when search produces direct access to the original and complete information, that is real definitive data. They can be:
• textual:  you can find full-text pdf of periodicals articles, that is electronical copies of articles 
• numerical: original data are expressed in diagrams, charts, chimical formulas and so forth
• mixed between the two previous forms
  

• bibliographical: the search produces bibliographical references, but you can find articles, laws, documents on other platforms. 
  

A particular kind of bibliographical databases are citational databases, which include citations and abstracts of articles, but above all, they provide information about the impact of a single publication or author, that is how much the journal or the author are noted within the scientific community.

We will see in detail databases later on.