Skip to Main Content
University of Texas University of Texas Libraries

UGS 302 - Storytelling Radio to Podcasts - Arjomand

Find Sources

Find Articles on a Topic

For this assignment, you might need a few types of sources:

Source Type Start Here

Scholarly Articles

 Start with the library search bar - advanced search. Try the "peer reviewed" limit. You can also use the recommended library databases. 

Books

 Start with the library search bar - advanced search. You can limit to books. Use the find books tab. Consider publisher and author as you decide if a book is scholarly. You might only read and use the chapters most relevant to your research. 
Current News Think about who you're interested in - will they be talked about in a national publication? If so, the New York Times (see the left side bar to set up your access) would be a good place to start! You can also try Nexis Uni, which is a database of a lot of news through the UT libraries, Google News, or a particular publication's website. If you hit a paywall, we might be able to help you access particular article in our collections (ask on chat). See suggested resources below.
Historical News

Again, Important figures might show up in large national newspapers, but other folks might show up in local news coverage.

See suggested resources below.
Other Sources You might need other sources! Maybe an interview with your person, or some of their work, or even commentary about them on the internet. Think about what you need to learn and how it informs your argument. Think about whether the source is the correct source to help you learn about that part of your topic. 

Searching databases is different than searching Google. Distil what you're looking for into a few key terms or phrases, rather than whole sentences. 

  1. Is the academic achievement of immigrant students impacted by national policy debates on immigration?)
  2. For each main concept, brainstorm a few synonyms and related terms (broader or narrower) that get at that concept:

    • Key Concepts 

      		 immigrant students academic achievement policy debates
      Related Terms

      undocumented students (more specific)

      immigrants

       

       

      learning

      academic performance

      achievement (more general)

      success

      academic success

      public debate

      policy ideas

      policy proposals

      attitudes (more general/related)

      negative attitudes

      positive attitudes 
  3. Combine key terms using AND and OR:​​
    • ​AND narrows your search by looking for articles with all of the words (your two or three key concepts should be connected with AND, because you need all of them represented in useful articles). 
    • OR broadens your search by looking for articles with any of the words (synonyms and related terms should be separated by OR - they get at the same key concepts, so any of them are useful).
  4. Try different combinations of your keywords to get better results as you search.​

Recommended Library Databases

Multidisciplinary

Subject specific

Newspaper Access - Current

Historical news

Ask a Librarian

Chat With Us

EID login required

What are databases?

This video, from RMIT University, explains what a database is...

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.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Generic License.