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Graduate Research Process: 2c. Find Articles

Wondering where to start? Have you hit a brick wall? Let this guide help you get on track.

Access to Databases

If you are on any UIW campus, you will be able to access our online databases without having to logon. If you are not on campus (say, at home or at a coffee shop), before you can start your research you will need to login using your UIW credentials (the same logon information you use for Banner or your UIW email account).

Interlibrary Loan

If you come across an article you need for your research, and the Library does not provide full-text access to it in print or electronic format, request it through our Interlibrary Loan (ILL) service. Please do your due diligence to see if you can locate the article through our databases before you place an ILL request.

ILL article requests can take up to two weeks to arrive. This service is free to the UIW community.

When we receive the pdf of your article, you will receive an email in your UIW account advising you to return to your ILLiad account (the software we use to process ILL requests) and the pdf will be there waiting for you. Download it or save it (to a jump drive, for example). It will only remain on the ILLiad server for about ten days.

Distance students are also welcome to use our ILL service for articles.

Print Periodicals

The most recent issues of our print journal subscriptions may be found on display near the DVD collections on the second floor in the Quiet Study Area. Recent back issues may be found in the same location behind the current issue (lift the shelf). Older issues will be in the stacks of bound journals on the second floor.

Choosing a Database

Our databases provide you with 24-7 access to magazine, journal and newspaper articles as well as access to statistical and map databases. UIW Libraries purchase these subscriptions and you must be a part of the UIW community to use them. 

Using Google or even Google Scholar will not find the same material.  To help you identify the most appropriate database for your topic/subject:

How to Find an Article

Finding articles in the UIW Libraries' databases is fairly simple. If you run into problems, feel free to contact us.
From the library's page, click on the Databases & Journals tab and then choose Databases by Subject. On the Databases by Subject page, you will see a list of disciplines. Let's say your area of focus is Education. Choose Education from the Subject list. This will take you the list of databases that have Education information. Each database is unique. While there may be some coverage overlap, no two databases are exactly the same. Be sure to read the descriptions of the databases to ensure you are looking in a database that offers what you need. For example, College Source Online is a database of college and university catalogs. Unless you are comparing policies or departments across different institutions, you probably will not use this resource in your research. If you are looking for articles about education topics, you would focus your research in the databases that promise journal articles (Education Database, Education Source, and ERIC). If you fail to read the database descriptions, you will not know which database best addresses your needs.
Your topic and the assignment will dictate how extensively you need to search. If you only need three articles by the next time your class meets, you may just look in one database. If you are doing a thorough literature review, however, you will need to search more than one database.
If your topic is in any way about human behavior, you will also want to visit the psychology databases (under Social Sciences on the Databases by Subject page).
Once you choose a database, type in your keywords (review Sections 1c and 2f of this guide about developing keywords and search strategies if you need help).
Before you click search, be sure to check the box for peer-reviewed (scholarly) articles. This ensures that the articles retrieved have been reviewed by experts in the field and that the citations are accurate so that you as a reader can track them down.
Do not check full-text only. There are many reasons an article might not be in a database. They can, however, still display the citation. If you see a citation that is not full text, we can always get the article for you via interlibrary loan. Rest assured that if you do not check full-text only, the database will still show you all the articles they have in full text, but it will also display citations for articles they might not have as well.
If you see "Check Other UIW Resources" after a citation, follow that link. It will either take you to a different database to which we subscribe that covers the journal in question (this should be a seamless transition) or it will suggest requesting the article via interlibrary loan.
Once the database retrieves results, you may narrow your results to more specific dates, particular authors, document types, etc. If you want to know how to properly cite a particular article, click on "Cite" and choose the style you need. You still need to proofread the citation to ensure it is accurate but it gets you started on the right foot.
 

Article Formats

Depending on the database you are using, articles may be displayed in different formats:

  • Index: Includes only the article’s citation information (e.g. author, title, date, volume, etc.). Neither a summary, nor the full-text of the article are available.
  • Abstract: Includes the article’s citation information and a brief summary of the article's content. Abstract only citations do not include the full-text article. Abstracts are usually written by the author.
  • Full-text: Includes indexing information, the abstract and an electronic copy of the actual article. Depending on the database, the article may be available in HTML format, .pdf format, or both. If you have an option, always choose the .pdf format. It is a scan of the article and displays exactly as it was laid out in the print journal (with graphics and illustrations). Often the HTML format drops illustrations at the bottom of the article and may not include all of them.

FRIENDLY REMINDER: You need to read the entire article if you are including it in your research. Reading the abstract is a good way to determine if the article will be pertinent, but it will be painfully obvious if you jump to conclusions in your paper or literature review that are not supported in the article itself.

Finding Journals

Find journals, magazines, or newspapers that are available through UIW several ways.  Search for print or e-journals here. You may also get to this page by click on the Databases & Journals tab and then on the A-Z List of Journals link.

UIW Libraries subscribe to hundreds electronic bibliographic databases, as well as a variety of statistical and map databases.  Each of those databases, in turn, are composed of hundreds of journals available electronically.

For more information on a particular journal, including publication history, demographics, alternate titles under which it has been published, etc., check Ulrich's Periodical Directory.

Staff LADR