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UGS 302: Fashion, Beauty & Culture / Wilson

Find Sources

Step 1: Brainstorm Search Terms (Keywords)

Library databases and Google can't be searched the same way so take a few moments to come up with a search strategy before diving into a database.

Step 1:  Think about the key concepts of your topic and search those instead of an entire phrases or sentences.

Step 2:   Think of other terms you could use that are synonyms or related (they could be a broader or narrower aspect).  This often requires that you do a little background research to learn more.

Step 3:  Connect your terms using AND and OR:

Remember - 

  • AND narrows your topic (use AND between terms if you want them all to appear in your results)
  • OR broadens your topic (use OR between terms if you want any, not all, to appear in your results)

Step 2: Pick a Tool and Find Articles

 

Type of Tool About Start Here

Multidisciplinary

  • Include a range of sources (scholarly articles, magazine articles, books, patents, etc.) types from many disciplines
  • Expect large numbers of results
  • Great if you don't know where to start or want an easy-to-use search tool

 

Libraries Search Box

Google Scholar 

 

Subject-specific

  • Include specialized sources within a specific discipline or type of source
  • Allows for more precision searching 
  • Choose databases by subject/discipline (think about what department on campus would have scholars researching your topic) or by type of source (primary sources, newspapers, etc.)

Databases List 

(use the "All Subjects" dropdown menu or the All Database Types drop-down menu)

 

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Scholarly Journal Articles

You may be asked to look for peer-reviewed, research, scholarly, referred or academic articles - all names for the same type of source. What are they? These articles go through the  peer-review process before they are published. A scholar/researcher/professor submits their article to a journal and it is sent to other experts in the field (peers) to ensure that they contain high-quality, original research important to the field. This is a measure of quality control other types of articles don't go through. 

 

If you can't tell whether or not a journal is peer-reviewed, check Ulrichsweb.

  1. access the database
  2. type in the title of the journal
  3. peer-reviewed journals will have a referee jersey ("refereed" is another term for "peer-reviewed") - example below

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