Research Guides: Intro to Library Research: Searching for articles

How to Find an Article

Choose which database to use
Break search into keywords (think of as many words as you can that might appear in articles on your topic)
Search for your keywords using AND, OR, and Truncation * (e.g. coal AND climate change --- climate change OR global warming)
Use limiters - use options on side or top to narrow your results
Review the titles and abstracts - decide which articles are relevant to your research by looking at titles and abstracts (short summaries of the articles)
Select articles to download and read, be sure to make note of all the citation information!

Recommended Databases

The library subscribes to more than 300 databases. These are each collections of resources that you can search, from the very broad to the very specific. Some general databases (always a good place to start) are:

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window Comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full text database with more than 5,300 full text periodicals, including 4,400 peer-reviewed journals. Offers indexing and abstracts for more than 9,300 journals and a total of 10,900 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc.
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Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new window A collection of viewpoints from various sources on social issues, such as gun control, genetic engineering, censorship, abortion, endangered species, to name a few. Includes relevant articles, encyclopedia entries and opinions for each topic covered.
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If you want more specific databases, go to the Databases A to Z list (linked here and on the home page), and use the subject pull down at the top to find databases for your topic:

Databases A to Z

Search Google Scholar

You can use Google Scholar to search for academic articles on the web, but it may be harder to find full text.