database selection

As a university we have a lot of databases for searching, particularly for searching articles.
A well considered choice could avoid a frustrating pile of rubbish or no results what so ever.

Databases have been designed with various objectives in mind.

Some try to disclose a discipline, such as Chemical Abstracts, Compendex, Inspec, Medline. These databases will usually include abstracts from all kind of sources.
Others are basically the platforms from the publishers where they present their content.
Using those platforms for finding information (which is different from locating a specific article) creates an enormous bias in your results, seductive as the platforms can be with nice tools and a suggestion of completeness.
And then we have databases build for all kind of other purposes, resulting in a specific choice of sources or document types.

Choosing a database in a different discipline or with a focus different from your view, might end up in a useless effort. Learn to recognize unfruitfull searches. Which is not similar to searches with no results.