WR 301 Critical Writing in English - Lincoln: Finding Journal Articles
Disciplinary databases: important tools for finding good articles
While the ease of full text multidisciplinary collections (described in the box on the lower right of this page) are easy and fast; knowing and effectively using the databases published by academic scholarly societies can make your research better. These databases employ editors with disciplinary expertise to select the best scholarly presses and journals for the discipline and create descriptions of those publications (individual articles, book chapters, books) using subject headings and other descriptive elements appropriate for the discipline. These kinds of search elements can greatly improve the relevance of the articles you choose.
Scholarly Journal
Scholarly, Professional, Popular?
The first thing you should do when you have a research assignment is figure out what types of article sources are required or allowed. Some professors require you to use only scholarly peer-reviewed journals while others might let you use professional journals (also known as trade journals.
Scholarly article - written by an expert in the field and reviewed by peers who are experts in the same area. In many databases, you can limit your search to scholarly, peer-reviewed or refereed journals to weed out any non-scholarly content.
Professional/trade article - Trade or professional journals can have articles written by experts in the field or by staff writers. The articles are only reviewed by editors for style, so they go through a less rigorous review process. The articles often do not contain reference lists.
Popular journals - Written for a general audience rather than for professionals or scholars. Examples include The New Yorker, People, and Rolling Stone.
Literature Databases
- MLA International BibliographyIndexes citations to journal articles, dissertations, and books about world literature, literary criticism, language, linguistics, and folklore from 1921 to the present.
More detail about using the MLA International Bibliography is here.
- Literature Online - LIONIn addition to the full text reference works, biographical sketches, bibliographies, and selected novels, poems, dramas, and prose; LION also includes the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (ABELL).
To access ABELL once you've connected to LION, click on the Criticism menu, and select ABELL.
Related Discipline Databases
- Historical AbstractsFind citations to academic articles on world history (except the U.S. and Canada), from the 15th century to the present.
- Humanities and Social Sciences Index Retrospective (H.W. Wilson)Indexes citations to articles from scholarly social science and humanities journals from 1907 to 1984.
- International Medieval BibliographyIndexes citations to journal articles and book chapters about the Middle Ages covering Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa from 300 to 1500.
- Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA)Indexes journal citations and other publications covering all aspects of the study of language including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics.
Find it @ PSU
If the article you have found in a database doesn't have the full-text right there, click on the button to see if the article is available in full-text in another database. If we do have it, it will take you to a page that shows you where it's available (if you see a Download Article link, you can click to access the electronic copy).
Multidisciplinary Resources
- JSTORContains full text articles from major research journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Coverage of most journals starts from the beginning of a journal's publication and typically excludes the most recent three to five years.
- ProjectMuseIndexes citations for books and articles as wells as full text articles and ebooks from scholarly presses.
- Google ScholarGoogle Scholar searches the academic, scholarly Web for peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles. Searching Google Scholar from the Portland State University Library will identify full text articles available from PSU Library resources as well as open access articles from other universities and colleges.
Searching for a Known Article: PSU Library Catalog
This page features databases that will link you directly to the article you've found. However, as a researcher, many times you'll discover excellent articles in the references your find in articles you're reading. Here's how to get to look up those articles.