A database record is all the information about an article, book, book chapter, or dissertation in the database. The database record contains factual information about the article and may include a link to the full-text of the article.
The database record can be thought of in 3 sections:
Understanding the information available in the database record can help you know how to construct your search. For example, if you are looking for research about college and university campuses it can be helpful to know that the words college and university are typically in the author affiliation information in the database record. The database default is to search the entire record. If you search the words "college OR university" using the database default you will get many results that aren't research about colleges or universities.