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.

Don't forget to use the Search Tips ("", *, AND, OR).  See How to Search on the right of this page.

Databases that include articles on most subjects: (business, communication, education, environment, health, political science, sociology, etc.)

Subject-specific databases: (include articles published in journals and trade publications for a specific subject)

Use Google Scholar to find journal articles, conference papers, theses & dissertations, academic websites and more in all subjects.  Be sure to set your Google Scholar Settings.  Click on  (usually in the top left corner of the screen).  Next click on the button.  Select Library Links on the left and make sure "University of Washington Libraries - Check for Full-Text @ UW" is checked.  You may also want to add "Open WorldCat - Library Search" and "Seattle Public Library - Full-Text@Seattle Library " if you have an SPL library card.

Use the Bibliography Manager to export your citations to RefWorks, EndNote, Bib Tex, Refman, or WenXianWang

Try an Advanced Scholar search for more control over your search results.  To access the Google Scholar Advanced Search screen, click on  again.  

UW Libraries Databases

Watch the video here or view the full screen in a new tab

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 the importance of journalism in a democracy, I might want to find articles the history of journalism in the United States, the current state of journalism in the U.S., the freedom of the press in other countries,  or the dangers that "fake news" pose to democracy.  I should also consider other related terms including synonyms. So I might do searches on:

• journalism AND "United States"
• journalism AND "United States" AND history
• "fake news"
• journalism AND democracy AND "fake news"
• "freedom of the press" AND democracy
• "freedom of the press" AND (autocra* OR dictat*)
• "freedom of the press" AND "Middle East"

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. 

Waisbord, Silvio. “TRUTH IS WHAT HAPPENS TO NEWS: On Journalism, Fake News, and Post-Truth.” Journalism Studies, vol. 19, no. 13, Oct. 2018, pp. 1866–1878. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/1461670X.2018.1492881.

The UW Libraries subscribes to many databases because they do not include the same publications.  The publishers decide which databases may include the full text of their articles.  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 the article online in a different database and, if we don't, see if the magazine is available in paper.

If the Libraries does not have the item that you need, borrow it for free through Interlibrary Loan.