Research Guides: How to Research a Topic: 4. Find Articles

Locating Articles

Search WorldCat Discovery (the main search box on the library homepage)
OR
Select a database: Browse the A-Z Databases page by title or subject and select a database.
Search for an article: Start with a keyword search. Enter your search terms in the search box.
Select an article: After submitting your search, you'll get a list of articles from which to choose.
View your article: Most databases include the full text of the articles along with the citations. If so, then your search is complete! Just click on the full text link (may be labeled HTML or PDF). However, sometimes you will only get a citation for an article.

If the full text isn't available, try these options:

See if the article is available in another database: Click on to see if full text of the article is available in any of our other databases.
Find the print version: If the article isn't available in a database, check WorldCat Discovery for print holdings of the journal in our library or nearby libraries (U of M, Rhodes).

If Plough Library has it:	If Plough Library does NOT have it:
Locate it on the Periodicals shelves. Recent issues are shelved alphabetically by title on the main floor. Back issues are on the library's lower level in the Periodical Stacks.	If no local library has the article, submit an Interlibrary Loan (ILL) request using the Interlibrary Loan Request Form.

Scholarly or Professional Journals (aka Peer-Reviewed): contain articles published by scholars or experts in a specific field. Usually based on original research, they are peer-reviewed (or refereed), meaning they are read and approved by other scholars before being published. They include author credentials, abstracts, and bibliographies.
Popular Magazines: contain current events, news, and general interest articles for the general public. They are written primarily to inform and entertain. (Examples: Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, Rolling Stone)
Trade Publications: fall somewhere in between scholarly and popular periodicals and cover a particular trade or industry. Authors are usually specialists in an industry who write to give practical information to people in their field.

TIP: Easily limit your search to scholarly or peer-reviewed articles in EBSCO or Gale databases.

EBSCO Databases have a "Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals" limit

Gale Databases can limit to "Peer Reviewed Journals"

	Scholarly	Popular	Trade
Examples	American Economic Review, Journal of Biomechanics	National Geographic, Glamour, Sports Illustrated	Advertising Age, Sight and Sound, Industry Week
Author	scholars, researchers, or experts in the field	magazine staff writers or free-lance writers	specialists or practitioners in the profession or industry
Audience	scholars, researchers, professionals, and students	general public	members of a specific profession or industry
Sources	always cite their sources in the form of a bibliography or footnotes	rarely cite sources	occasionally cite sources
Peer-Reviewed (Refereed)	articles are reviewed by an author's peers before publication	no peer-review (articles reviewed by an editor or an editorial board)	no peer-review process
Advertisements	minimal, select advertising, usually geared towards the discipline	extensive advertising, aimed at the general public	usually contains advertisements that are trade or industry related
Appearance	plain cover and paper, lengthy articles with abstracts, minimal pictures other than graphics within articles	attractive format, glossy paper, short articles with no formal structure, many pictures	attractive format, glossy paper, short to medium-length articles with no formal structure, heavily illustrated