1. Choose the type of information you need.

Articles are published in scholarly journals, newspapers and popular magazines. Think about the type of information you need for your paper, who would write about your topic and where those articles would be published. This will save you time by ensuring that you begin your research in the right place.

Example:

Topic: Female college students with eating disorders.

Who would write about this topic?

A. Psychologists, health/medical researchers

B. Writers for women's magazines or news magazines

Where would they publish?

A. Scholarly psychology or health/medical journals

B. Popular magazines

For more information about the difference between scholarly and popular information, see our Research Guide Searching for Periodical Articles and Scholarly vs. Popular Comparison.

2. Choose a database.

Now that you know the types of articles you need, you can choose a database, also known as a periodical index, to find them. Databases are collections of thousands of articles organized by subject. The Libraries have hundreds of databases covering every academic discipline. Some are multi-disciplinary, covering a broad range of subjects and including popular and scholarly sources, and others are subject-specific, and include scholarly and specialized articles. A complete list is available on our Databases page.

The following multi-disciplinary databases are good places to start your research:

• Academic Search Premier (1965 - present)
  Find scholarly, popular and newspaper articles from across disciplines. Includes full-text.
  
• Access World News
  Find full-text of articles from over 1400 newspapers, including the New York Times and the Muncie Star Press.

To find a subject-specific database, click on the Subject drop-down menu on the Databases page:

Example:

Female college students with eating disorders

Databases :

• Academic Search Premier includes scholarly articles by psychologists and health researchers, as well as articles from popular news magazines.
• PsycINFO, a subject-specific database in psychology, includes scholarly articles.

3. Search the database.

To search a database, choose keywords which represent the main concepts of your topic and combine them using AND. For each concept, choose a number of keywords, including synonyms and related terms, in order to find the best articles for your research.

Example:

Female college students with eating disorders

4. Find the complete article.

All databases will list citations which you can use to find the entire article. Some will also provide abstracts (brief summaries) of articles, while others will contain the full text of the article. If the article is not full-text in the database, you have two options:

Option 1

• Follow the link.
• A box will appear listing your options for finding the article full-text in available databases or in the Library Catalog (CardCat).

Option 2

• Search the title of the journal or magazine in the Library Catalog (CardCat).
• The catalog record will give you options for finding the article full-text in available databases or in print in the library.

To find the article in print in the library:

• In the catalog entry for the journal, scroll down to the Holdings information.
• Write down the call number, library & location in order to find it on the shelf.

FAQs

What if the library doesn't have the journal or magazine I need?

• If the library does not own the journal or magazine you need, you can request the article for free through Interlibrary Loan simply by filling out an online request form. The library will get the article from another university and give it to you electronically or in print.

Is it possible to see which journals are available online?

• Visit e-Journals to see which journals we subscribe to electronically. You may find the title of the journal listed more than once. Check the date ranges under each listing to find the listing which will contain your article.