Search results are seldom perfect-it often takes multiple attempts to really get at what you are interested in.
After your first scan you'll start to notice some issues with your results-is there too many, too few, is this really what I want?. The truth is most academic reach requires series of steps to get closer to the articles that meet your interests.
Don't worry! Once you know the tricks it's pretty fast:
Use the Date Newest Relevance pull down menu
You can use Relevance (how closely it matches your search) pull down menu above your result list (see by watch, below) to re-sort your result list by author, source (periodical or other resource in which the article was published) or date. Depending on your topic, sorting by relevance combined with the date limit can really save you some time in your search.
Those are the top limits to try, but the others available may also be useful at times. You can apply as many limits as you want to any search. Occasionally this will result in no articles. In that case try deselecting some of the limits until you retrieve results. It may be that for some reason there are no full text articles on your topic. Or, you may want to re-think the terms you entered in the search box. Try using different terms to describe your topic. See search techniques that can be used in any database.
Narrowing down your results can save you time. These options are available from the left hand column of the result page (look for the watch in the results image in the Save Time on Result List box):
You probably won't have to use this option for all of your research projects, but if your instructor requires that you use academic, scholarly or peer reviewed journals, this is the easiest way to get them: