Research Guides: ENGL 4800: Find Articles

Tips for Searching for Articles

Take some time to think of the best keywords to enter and be ready to change them as you pursue your topic. Get ideas for new keywords by carefully examining the title, abstract and subject fields in your first results. If the database you're using has a thesaurus of terminology, use it!

Try these search features:

• Use quotation marks to search for a phrase - "Live Alone and Like It"

• Set search limits such as scholarly journals, full-text, or document type

• Sort results by date or relevance

• Look at suggested subjects to narrow your search

• Use truncation - * (femin* will find feminine, feminist, feminism, for example)

If you’ve found an article in full-text, you can:

• Use the email feature to send the citation and the article, or

• Save the article, or Print the article

Using ILLiad

ILLiad can have a much slower turn around and lending libraries may place more restrictions on the loan period, so ILLiad should only be used when the resource is NOT available within the USG system through GIL Express.

To use ILLiad:

First time users will need to register for an account
Log into your ILLiad account
Select the appropriate resource type under the "New Request" menu
Be as detailed and accurate as possible when providing information about the article or book to increase the chance of the item being located
You can check the status of your pending requests and checked out items by logging back into your ILLiad account

Frequently asked questions about ILLiad can be found here.

Recommended Databases for this Class

MLA International Bibliography
The MLA International Bibliography offers a detailed bibliography of journal articles, books, and dissertations. Produced by the Modern Language Association (MLA), the electronic version of the bibliography dates back to the 1920s and contains over 1.8 million citations from more than 4,400 journals & series, and 1,000 book publishers
JSTOR

Provides electronic access to back issues (from the date of first publication) of selected, core journals, organized into the Arts and Sciences Collections I & II, the General Sciences Collection, the Ecology and Botany Collection, and the Business Collection.
Project Muse
Project Muse similar to JSTOR, is a full-text journal database for over 100 journals in the fields of literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, and gender studies.
SocINDEX with Full Text
SocINDEX with Full Text features over 1 million records with subject headings from a sociology-specific thesaurus designed by expert lexicographers. This database also contains abstracts for over 1,000 "core" coverage journals dating back to 1895. Indexing for books, monographs, conference papers, and other sources is also included.
Research Library
Research Library provides one-stop access to a wide range of popular academic subjects and includes full-text access for thousands of titles, including scholarly journals, trade publications, magazines, and newspapers. Coverage: 1971 - present.
Academic Search Complete

Multi-disciplinary database offering full-text coverage of information in mathematics, physical sciences, social sciences, humanities, and technology.
Communication & Mass Media Complete
Communication and Mass Media Complete (CMMC) provides access to quality research journals and publications in areas related to communication and mass media.
PsycARTICLES

PsycARTICLES, from the American Psychological Association (APA), includes full-text, peer-reviewed scholarly and scientific articles in general psychology and specialized basic, applied, clinical, and theoretical research in psychology.

Using the GALILEO Discover Tool

The DISCOVER tool allows you to search many, but not all, GALILEO databases and the library catalog at once.

Things you should know about the DISCOVER Tool:

It includes books, ebooks, articles from journals, magazines, newspapers, streaming videos, and more.

It is a good place for multi-disciplinary research and when you are unsure where to begin your research.

Articles in other databases (Gale Virtual Reference Library, for example) are included as links, but you will probably have more success searching these databases individually.

Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) are optional

It automatically searches within the full text of articles, but not books.

It includes GILFind resources, including books and DVDs.

It does not give you the same limiters as searching individual databases.

Advanced Search allows you to narrow by subject area ("discipline") and easily create complex searches.