LibGuides: Peer Research Consultant: Finding Articles

Finding Articles

Planning out your search strategy in advance will save you time finding relevant articles in the library databases. To search most effectively, break your research topic into it's main concepts. Exp

ableism,
public policy,
people with mobility-related disabilities.

Do background research and brainstorming to discover other terms the literature may use for these concepts.

Brainstorm synonyms for each concept;
Scan books, encyclopedia articles, & class materials for related words;
Explore thesauri within the databases for subject terms related to your concept.

Example:

Concept	Brainstorming	Academic Search Complete Thesaurus	MeSH Headings
ableism	ableist OR discrimination OR prejudice OR bias OR marginalization	ableism OR "discrimination against people with disabilities"	"discrimination psychology"[MeSH Terms]
public policy	government OR law OR legal	Law	"Public Policy"[MeSH Terms]
people with mobility-related disabilities	wheelchair OR crutches OR elderly OR Parkinson's	Movement disorders	"Mobility Limitation"[MeSH Terms]

Library databases allow you to search across multiple magazines, newspapers, or journals at once. To choose the right databases to search, think about the type of information you want (scholarly journal articles or a newspaper article, for example) and who would be reading and writing about your topic.

Multidisciplinary databases search broadly for sources across multiple disciplines. Many include a mix of scholarly and non-scholarly sources as well.
Subject-specific databases dive more deeply into the scholarly literature of a particular discipline.

TIP: Start your search with one multidisciplinary database and one subject specific database.

Multidisciplinary Databases

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
1990 - present. Unlimited users.
Updated daily. A comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full text database, with more than 5,300 full text periodicals, including 4,400 peer-reviewed journals. Offers indexing and abstracts for more than 9,300 journals and a total of 10,900 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc.
Features PDF content going back as far as 1865, with the majority of full text titles in native (searchable) PDF format. Searchable cited references are provided for 1,000 journals.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Dates of coverage vary. Unlimited users.
Updated regularly. Offers a high-quality, interdisciplinary archive to support scholarship and teaching. Includes archives of over 1,000 leading academic journals across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, as well as select monographs and other materials valuable for academic work. The entire corpus is full-text searchable, offers search term highlighting, includes high-quality images, and is interlinked by millions of citations and references.

For more information on ebooks see the Ebook Guide

Subject-specific databases

PsycINFO (Ebsco) This link opens in a new window
1887 - present. Unlimited users.
Updated monthly. Indexes and abstracts over 1,700 sources, including international material selected from periodicals written in over 35 languages. Contains current chapter and book coverage with worldwide English-language material published from 1987 to the present, and adds over 60,000 references annually through monthly updates. Covers the professional and academic literature in psychology and related disciplines.
Has over 1.8 million individual records, some dating back to 1887, and includes abstracts from Psychological Abstracts back to 1927, Psychological Bulletin from 1921-1926, and all APA journals and the American Journal of Psychology back to their first issues. Corresponds in part to the print index Psychological Abstracts.
SocINDEX with Full Text This link opens in a new window
1895 - present. Unlimited.
In addition to full-text journals, SocINDEX with Full Text contains informative abstracts for core coverage journals dating as far back as 1895. Includes indexing for books, monographs, conference papers and other non-periodical content sources.
PubMed This link opens in a new window
1950 - present. Unlimited users.
Updated weekly. Provides access to over 36 million citations in MEDLINE, PreMEDLINE, and other related databases. Links to the full text articles are provided when available, subject to UT subscription status.

Set up LibKey Nomad to find access through the UT Libraries subscriptions and purchases.
MLA International Bibliography
1926 - present. Unlimited users.
Updated ten times per year. Indexes critical materials on literature, criticism, drama, languages, linguistics, and folklore. Provides access to citations from over 4,400 journals, series, books, essay collections, working papers, proceedings, dissertations, and bibliographies. Produced by the Modern Language Association.
Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Dates of coverage vary. Unlimited users.
Journals: Updated as issues are published. Project MUSE is a leading provider of humanities and social science content for the scholarly community, with complete, full-text versions of scholarly journals from leading university presses and scholarly societies.
Books: Selected titles from university presses and scholarly societies. All content from the print edition of the book is included in the digital edition. There are no DRM restrictions.

For more information on ebooks see the Ebook Guide

To find databases for other fields that may speak to your research, check out the list of Databases by Subject.

Take some time to plan out your search strategy in advance. Remember these important search tips.

Don't search wth your topic as a single phrase. Determine the key concepts of your topic. Then place each concept in its own search bar.
Use ORs to string together synonyms or related terms for core concepts and place concepts on individual lines connected with AND.
- Line 1: ableism OR ableist OR discrimination OR prejudice OR bias OR marginalization
- Line 2: public policy OR government OR law OR legal
- Line 3: "people with mobility-related disabilities" OR wheelchair OR crutches OR elderly OR Parkinson's OR "Movement disorders" OR "Mobility Limitation"
Use quotation marks to search for exact phrases
Look for the "peer reviewed" limit in each database. You can set this limit on the main search screen (before you search) or narrow your results after you've started your search.
Set date limits as appropriate for your topic.

If your first search doesn't return the results you want, done give up. Edit your search strategy, add more synonyms, and try again.

Found a reference to an article or book you want to read? Now it's time to locate it.

Does the Catalog or database record you have found include full text? (Look for an HTML or PDF link.)
If the Catalog, database, or index record does not link to the full article or book, click the button to see if the full text is available electronically or, if you are not already in the Catalog, in print in the library.
No button? Copy the name of the journal or book and search for it in the Library Catalog title search.
- Available? Take a look at the Find Books at UT Libraries tutorial to learn how to locate a book.
- Checked out? Sign in with your EID and password and use the "Pick It Up" link to shorten the due date and get an email when it's ready for you to use.
- Not in the Catalog? Ask for help or request it through InterLibrary Services.

What is a library database?

Your instructor or subject librarian may throw around the term "library database" a lot, but what exactly do they mean? This video from RMIT University in Australia explains the term and how you can use databases for research.

Transcript available through YouTube.

Where's the Article?

If you don’t see a .pdf of the article you want, click FIND IT AT UT to find it in another database or in print in the Libraries.

If it is only in print in the Libraries or we don’t own the article, click GET A SCAN to have the article emailed to you. This option will take a few days.