Journal articles can be found in many different sources and databases. The most relevant databases to search will vary based on what topic you are researching and what field you are writing in. For subject-specific database recommendations, look at a guide for your subject, or look through the full listing of databases you can access through CUA. The following databases are recommended as a good start in most fields:
Academic Search Complete, first stop for the beginning researcher, is our largest multi-disciplinary database, offering thousands of full-text journals, as well as indexing and abstracts for magazines, monographs, reports, and conference proceedings. Most of the periodicals are covered back to at least the early 1990s, but some content dates back as far as 1887. The database features some content going back as far as 1867, with the majority of full text titles in native (searchable) PDF format. To cross-search additional subject-specific databases from this publisher, click on Choose Databases.
JSTOR is a digital archive of fully searchable back issues of scholarly journals in anthropology, Asian studies, Afro American studies, ecology, economics, education, finance, general science, history, literature, mathematics, philosophy, political science, sociology, and statistics. It also includes over 2 million rights-cleared images (fka ARTstor) from major collections around the world, discoverable alongside JSTOR’s electronic texts on one feature-rich platform. Learn more about the transition to JSTOR.
Project MUSE was launched in 1995 by Johns Hopkins University Press and contains the full text of over 350 high quality humanities and social sciences journals from over 60 scholarly publishers.
Multi-subject reference source covering general and academic periodicals; full-text is available for many articles.
When using the databases to locate articles, keep the following tips in mind:
Be sure to break your topic into relevant keywords instead of simply typing it into the search box. If your search returns a much bigger or smaller number of results than you anticipated, try revising your keywords.
You can use Boolean operators to broaden or narrow your search results. To find results about cats and dogs, use the search cats AND dogs. To find results about cats, but not dogs, use the search cats NOT dogs. To find results where either cats or dogs are mentioned, use the search cats OR dogs.
Spelling counts. Databases have keyword searching, but unlike Google, they won't correct your spelling for you.
To find out if CUA has access to a journal you're interested in, use the Journal Title Search link under the SearchBox for Articles on the library's homepage. On the result page, you'll see where you can access the journal through our subscriptions or print holdings. Make sure to check the dates before you go to a database to find a particular volume or issue. For many journals, like the example below, different databases provide access to different periods in the run of the journal.
