Find Articles

Contents:

Journal Jargon

Find Journal Articles on a Topic    [Print a handout.]

Find a Particular Journal Article    [Print a handout.]

Useful Links

Journal Jargon

A citation provides a journal article's identifying information: author, article title, journal title, journal volume and issue, year and page numbers.

 

A full-text journal article is one available in electronic and/or print form.

The journal title is the name of a publication; the article title refers to an individual article within a publication.

 

Journals typically contain scholarly material while magazines and newspapers are considered popular sources. Want to know more?

Scholarly versus Popular Sources

 

Find Journal Articles on a Topic

[View a printable handout on finding journal articles on a topic.]

 

Finding articles is a different process from finding books. Begin by searching an appropriate online database or, for older journal articles, consult our collection of print indexes. The following tutorials will help you find relevant research articles.

 

Choosing a Periodical Database

Creating a Boolean Search Statement

 

General Databases are a good starting point. Try Academic Search Premier and LexisNexis Academic for articles on a wide range of topics.

Subject Databases focus on academic disciplines. Sort our Databases and Indexes by Subject for electronic resources useful to your academic major or concentration.

 

Find a Particular Journal Article

[View a printable handout on finding a particular journal online.]

 

Do we have a particular journal, magazine or newspaper in print form? Search the Library Catalog by the journa title. And remember: do not search the Catalog by the article title for this information.

 

Do we have access to a journal, magazine or newspaper in electronic form? See our Article Linker page to answer this important question.

 

If the journal, magazine, or newspaper is not available online and is not listed in the Library Catalog, contact a reference librarian or submit a request for the item via Interlibrary Loan (ILL).

Useful Links

Course Reserves: to locate articles on reserve, search by instructor or course name.

 

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ): free, full text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals.

 

Library Storage Facility: please contact Burling Library's Circulation Desk at 641-269-3350 to request an issue of a journal, magazine or newspaper from our offsite location.