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Research Guides

Find Scholarly (Academic) Journal Articles ...

 Academic articles, those published in scholarly journals, are the bedrock of most academic disciplines. They provide an indepth analysis of narrow topics. Prior to publishing, articles are vetted through a process called peer-review. Most academic articles include footnotes which can lead you to additional sources on a topic.

If a database does not provide the full text of the article that you need, select a button:

 or 

 These buttons will search to see if the Libraries has an article online in a different databases, and if we don't, see if the journal is available in paper.  Articles from journals which the UW does not own can be requested through Interlibrary Loan.

 

Search Time Savers

1.  Don't forget to use the Search Tips.  Try searches like these:

  • prison* AND ("mass media" OR television) AND (viewer* OR consum*)
  • crime AND news AND (online OR internet OR web) and (read* or consum*)
  • "african americans" AND "mass media" AND "african immigrants" AND relation*
  • "african americans" AND identity
  • africa AND immigrant* AND identity
  • feminis* AND ("social media" OR "social network*)
  • pakistan AND (ahmadiyya OR ahmadis) AND persecution
  • pakistan AND (religion OR religious) AND persecution

2.  Database alerts.  Library databases will email you when articles that match your search are added to the database. 

3.  Cross-database searching. Search multiple databases provided by the same vendor/company at one time. 

Is it peer-reviewed (refereed)?



Not sure if an article is scholarly or popular?  Need to verify that a journal is refereed?  Search the  Ulrichsweb periodicals directory for the title of the publication in which the article was published to see if the Document Type is academic/scholarly.

How to Search

Databases work by matching your search terms with the items in the database, in this case information about articles.  Generally when searching a library type database, link your search terms with the word AND. 

For example, to find articles related to MTV and reality television programming, I might want to find articles about reality television in general or articles focusing on a specific show such as Jersey Shore.  I should also consider other related terms including synonyms. So I might do searches on:

  • "jersey shore" AND mtv
  • "k town"
  • stereotypes AND ("jersey shore" OR "k town")
  • race AND "reality television"

Searching is a bit of an art so be creative and use a variety of search terms and strategies in order to find the best articles on your topic.

Remember the Information (Publication) Cycle - it takes time for subjects to appear in scholarly articles and books.  Depending on the newness of your topic, you may not find scholarly sources on your exact topic.