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Lucy Scribner Library

Find Articles: Find Articles

Where do I find articles?

There are several ways to find articles using library resources.  You'll find most articles through the library's databases. While there are databases that provide access to images, music, and streaming film, most of our databases are used to find articles from academic journals, magazines, and newspapers.

There are several ways to access the library databases including our subject guides.

 

How do I search the databases?

Most databases use the same search strategies. The link below is to a short, interactive tutorial that will take you through some of the common search techniques that you can try in the databases.

 

How do I find a specific article from a citation?

If you have a citation and need to find that specific article, there are several ways to do this.

  1. Search the title/author in Google Scholar. If the library has access to the full text, you should see a link to the full-text on the right-hand side.  Make sure, however, that Lucy Scribner Library has been set as a library link in your Google Scholar settings. 
  2. If you don't find the full-text in Google Scholar, you can use our Journals search to look up the journal's title to see if we have access to the journal that published the article, for what dates, and in what databases. Watch the video below to see how to do this.
  3. If you still haven't found the full-text, you can request the article using Interlibrary Loan. Watch the video below for instructions on how to do this.

Research Lingo

Periodical

This is a publication that is produced periodically (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.). This includes newspapers, magazines, and journals.

 

Journal

This is a publication published periodically that focuses on a particular subject.

 

Peer-Reviewed (also known as Refereed)

A type of academic journal that has reviewers (peers of the authors in that particular field) who review the submitted articles to decide if they should be published in the journal based on their academic scholarship and impact in the field. Reviewers will also often provide edits for the authors to make on their articles before publication. 

 

Empirical article (sometimes called a Research article or an Original Research article)

This is a type of journal article where the author(s) have conducted an original study. The methods used in the study will vary, especially with the discipline, but may include things like experiments, surveys, focus groups, case studies, etc. Empirical articles typically have a specific format that includes sections like an introduction, literature review, methods/methodology, findings, discussion, and a conclusion.

 

Literature Review

This can either be a specific type of journal article or a part of an empirical article. The authors search, review, and present the research done on a specific topic. 

 

Review Article

This is a type of journal article where an author reviews a book or other resource. Some review articles are very short while others may be multiple pages in length and provide a lot of depth into the topic and work being reviewed. While this may lead you to a great resource for your research, many professors do not want you to use a review article in your research. If you'd like to use a review article, check with your instructor.