CAT 591: Orientation to Research and Writing

A database is used for discovering scholarly journal articles in your subject area. Here are some things you will want to keep in mind when searching.

• Search using keywords.
• Think about how others may identify your topic and use synonyms to retrieve additional articles.
• Use appropriate boolean search operators to connect your keywords (AND, OR, NOT).
• Use limiters within the database for such things as narrowing your topic to a specific date range or type of publication. Remember you need to us scholarly peer-reviewed articles (see video).
• Read the abstracts. Don't judge an article by it's title. Read the abstract before deciding if you want to save the article to potentially use in your research.

Below are some databases recommended for the subject areas your topics may fall within.

If the database you are using doesn't provide the full text for an article directly, remember to follow these steps IN ORDER to search for a copy of the article. 

• This button will appear when the library has access to this article through another resource. When you see it, click on it to get the article.