Library Guides: Library Research Tutorial: Finding Articles

Finding Articles

This module covers how to use article databases in your research. After completing this module you should be able to:

distinguish between popular, trade, and scholarly periodicals
choose the best article database(s) for your research question
use an article database to locate articles of interest

Types of Articles

There are four types of articles that you might use during your research:

Article Type	What is it?	When should I use it?
Reference Articles	Articles that provide background information about a topic. Often written by a scholar. Published in reference books (physical or electronic).	When looking for background information about a topic.
Popular Articles	Articles written for the general public. Many are originally published in magazines and newspapers.	When looking for background information about a topic.
Trade Articles	Articles written for professionals in a specific field. Originally published in trade journals, such as Education Week or Paralegal Today.	When looking for information about a particular profession.
Scholarly Articles	Articles written by researchers for students and researchers. Published in scholarly journals. These articles go though the peer review process. This means that other researchers in the same field have read the article and provided feedback prior to publication.	When looking for original research.

You can learn more about the differences between popular, trade, and scholarly articles here: Is it a scholarly, trade, or popular?

Finding Reference Articles

Most of this tutorial focuses on how to find articles originally published in periodicals (e.g. magazines, newspapers, trade journals, and scholarly journals).

However, another kind of article you might want to look at are reference articles. Reference articles can be helpful to look at. as you begin a new research project. Reference articles are authored by experts (such as college professors) but are intended for a general audience rather than a scholarly audience.

The Inver Hills library has two databases dedicated to reference services: Gale Ebooks and Credo Reference Books.

Video Tutorials for Gale Ebooks

Credo How-To Videos

Why Use an Article Database?

When you use an online article database, it quickly scans thousands of issues of many different periodicals to find a match for your search terms. A database will show you which periodicals have articles on your topic. Otherwise, you would have to look through each issue of each periodical for articles on your topic.

What will you find in an article database?
You will find articles or citations to articles from different kinds of periodicals.

What are periodicals?
Magazines, newspapers, and journals are called periodicals because they are issued on a regular or "periodic" basis.

What's the difference between citation, abstract and full-text in a database?

Citation Some database results may not contain the article itself, but the citation will provide the information that you need to find the article. You can select what citation format you would like (e.g., APA, MLA...) by selecting Cite on the right hand panel underneath Tools.
Abstract Many database results also include an abstract or summary of the article's content.
Full text Most IHCC Library databases allow you to limit to articles with the complete text available.

How to access the full text of an article?

In the upper left hand corner of your article record, you may see options for viewing the article in PDF and/or HTML format. When possible, select the PDF option-- this allows you to see the article's page numbers as they appeared when the article was originally published in a printed or online journal.
In addition, look for the Where Can I Get This? link. If you follow this link and sign in with your StarID and password, you may see options for accessing the article in other ways, including through a different database or via Interlibrary Loan. You can reach out to a librarian for help accessing the article.

Types of Article Databases

There are two major types of article databases: multidisciplinary databases and subject databases. Which database(s) you will want to use will depend on your topic.

Multi-disciplinary article databases cover a wide range of subjects and sometimes index a mixture of popular and scholarly sources. One popular multidisciplinary database is Academic Search Premier, which includes includes scholarly articles (from multiple disciplines), magazine articles, newspaper articles, trade articles, and book reviews.

If you are looking for articles about a particular subject or from a certain academic discipline, use a subject database. These databases specialize in a particular subject, and many of the articles indexed are from scholarly sources.

Examples of subject databases and the kinds of articles they identify are:

CINAHL - Nursing and Allied Health: Used for nursing, paramedics, and other health professionals
ProQuest Criminal Justice Periodicals Articles on crime, law enforcement, and criminal justice from trade and scholarly journals.

Understanding Peer Review

Scholarly articles have gone through the peer review process. The video below, courtesy of the University of Carleton Library, provides a brief overview of the peer review process.