Finding Articles

When doing serious research, you will often have to consult the periodical literature. Periodicals is just another name for magazines and newspapers. Articles from periodicals often provide the most up to date information on a topic. However, finding relevant articles is often a difficult task.

The easiest way to find relevant periodical literature is to use an online database. Online databases contain the full-text of articles from thousands of periodicals in many subject areas. It is important to know that online databases are not the same as Internet search engines. Search engines help you locate Web pages. Online databases help you locate articles.

Online databases are accessible via the Internet, but you are not really "finding articles on the Internet," you are finding them in the databases. Database vendors obtain the rights to re-publish articles from a variety of periodicals. Schools and institutions then subscribe to these databases, and the users are able to search the contents of many periodicals at once.

Not only is it important to understand what databases are, it is important to know that the Library subscribes to several online databases, which may change from year to year. These databases vary in terms of content and interface.

Below are brief descriptions of some of the databases the Library subscribes to. Click on the name of a database for instructions on how to use it, or click here to begin using the Library's online databases.

Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe is used primarily to find articles from major newspapers and general periodicals, such as The New York Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, Time, and U.S. News & World Report. Articles are updated on a daily basis, so it is a good resource for current events. However, articles are also available from up to 20 years ago.

EBSCOHost is a large database that is comprised of several smaller databases. Here is where you will find articles from scholarly and professional journals, in addition to some newspapers and general periodicals. EBSCOHost contains articles from many subject areas, but two of its strengths are in the areas of Business and Nursing/Allied Health.

GALE also is a strong database for Health related information. Since it includes articles from Reference books and pamphlets as well as periodicals, it is intended for a more general audience than EBSCOHost. If you are searching for Health related information, you may wish to start in GALE for the general information and then move to EBSCOHost for more scholarly articles. GALE also contains an excellent Literature resource database. This is where you should go for literary criticisms.

CQ Researcher is an excellent resource for current events and socio-political topics. CQ Researcher is actually a weekly periodical itself, as opposed to a database of many periodicals. However, each issue is devoted to a particular topic, and the topic is covered in depth. The database contains all the issues of CQ Researcher for the past 10 years.

Also see:
- Using Article Databases (Utah Acad. Lib. Consortium)
- Scholarly vs Popular Information (Utah Acad. Lib. Consortium)
- Enhancing Search Statements (Utah Acad. Lib. Consortium)
- Boolean Operators (and, or, not) (California St. Univ. system)