Find Journal Articles on your topic
The easiest way to find articles from scholarly journals on your topic is to use a library database.
Note: If searching from off-campus, you will need to input your name and library barcode number (from the back of your access card) to use any library database.
Some of the databases you can use for your project are listed below. Choose the ones that seem the most relevant for your topic.
- GenderWatch This link opens in a new windowGenderWatch enhances gender and women's studies, and gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) research by providing authoritative perspectives from 1970 to present. GenderWatch provides access to over 300 titles, with more than 250 in full-text, from an array of academic, radical, community and independent presses.
- Women's Studies International This link opens in a new window
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
- JSTOR This link opens in a new window
- Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new window
- Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) This link opens in a new window
- Communication Source This link opens in a new window
- Social Science Premium Collection This link opens in a new windowContains more than 1,800 full-text articles and over 14,000 abstracts from scholarly journals and dissertations in the social sciences such as criminal justice, education, language behavior, linguistics, political science, sociology, etc.
Searching Strategies
- Before you start your research, try focusing your topic by writing a one sentence research question. For example:
- Why do college students use body piercings and tattooing?
- Identify the main ideas in your research question.
-
- body piercing or tattoing
- college students
-
- Use an asterisk to find variations of a word, for example tattoo* will retrieve tattoo and tattooing
- Use quotes around a phrase: "body piercing"
- Then, choose a database from the list on the left and enter your keywords in the search boxes. Separate synonyms with the OR connector.
For example:
Getting the full-text of database articles:
1. If the database you are using has the full-text article, just click on the link (pdf or htmil).
2. If the full-text is not available, click on Find It@SCU Libraries:
- Is the article available in another database (e.g., Wilson OmniFile, JSTOR)? If so, click on the link and follow the citation information (e.g., volume, issue, date of publication, etc.)
- Does the library have this journal in print? Go to the OSCAR record and request the issue you need from the ARS.
- If the library doesn't have access to the full-text of the article, you will be offered the option of ordering it through the interlibrary loan service (which is free).