Chicano/Latino Studies: Finding Articles

An overview of researching Chicano/Latino Studies at PSU Library and beyond.

Core Databases

Use databases to identify articles that have been published on your topic. The databases listed below provide academic articles regarding aspects of Chicano/Latino Studies, or they are multidisciplinary in their focus but include coverage of Chicano/Latino issues. You may find that you want to look for topics from the perspective of particular discipline. You can choose a disciplinary database from the Library's subject listing of databases.

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
Indexes articles related to political institutions, international law and politics, public policy, public administration, political theory, and political economics. Indexes sources from 1975 to the present.
Arte Publico Hispanic Historical Collections
Contains a digital collection of historical content pertaining to U.S. Hispanic history, literature, and culture from colonial times through the 20th century. Content is in both Spanish and English.
Sociological Abstracts
Indexes citations to journal articles, book chapters, dissertations, and conference proceedings in the field of sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences.
Gale OneFile Informe Académico
Indexes article citations, full text articles, and images from popular Hispanic magazines.
Ethnic Newswatch
Includes current newspapers, magazines, newsletters, and community publications of the ethnic, minority, and native presses. Includes scholarly journals on ethnicities and ethnic studies. Provides full text in English and Spanish.
America: History and Life
Includes citations of articles and books on the history and culture of the United States, Mexico, and Canada.
MLA International Bibliography
Excellent resource for Chicano/Latino literature.
Fuente Academica
Covers Spanish language scholarly, academic journals. Offers full text, multidisciplinary content.

Hispanic American Health (MedlinePlus)
Medline Plus is the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and National Institute of Health's (NIH's) online gateway to consumer health information. This site organizes resources selected for Hispanic American populations.

American West
Contains manuscripts, books, maps, photos, and other materials focusing on the American West.

Related Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Databases

PAIS Index (Public Affairs Information Service)
Covers public affairs, public and social policy, and international relations. Includes national and international journal articles, books, government documents, statistics, grey literature, research reports, conference papers, microfiche, and pertinent web sites.
PDXScholar
Portland State University's Digital Repository, PDXScholar, preserves the University's research, unique resources, and other scholarly output with the goal of providing persistent, access to that work.
Web of Science
Maintains citation searching for high impact research journals in the arts and humanities, social sciences, and sciences and includes emerging sources citation indexing from 2005.
Academic Search Premier
Provides selected full text, scholarly, and peer reviewed articles in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences.
Gender Studies Database
Combines Women's Studies International and Men's Studies databases. Provides citations to journal articles, conference papers, book chapters, government reports, and working papers as well as theses and dissertations.

Finding Recent Articles in the Library Catalog Video

This video demonstrates how to find recent newspaper and peer reviewed articles in the Portland State University Library Catalog.

How to Find Specific Articles Guide

If you have an article citation or the title of an article, check the library guide, Find Specific Articles in Full Text.

Peer-Reviewed, Popular…or in Between?

Questions to Ask when Evaluating Articles

	Scholarly, Peer-reviewed, Professional Journals	Popular Magazines
Examples	Harvard Business Review; American Journal of Sociology; Modern Language Notes	Newsweek; Sports Illustrated; People; National Geographic; Wired
What is “the look”?	Somber, serious with graphs and tables. Few, if any, pictures.	Attractive, slick with lots of pictures and advertisements.
Who is the audience?	Other professionals in the field or discipline. Language is scholarly and subject specific.	General audience. Language relative to the topic. Articles can be short and lacking depth.
What is the purpose?	To report original research or experimentation or persuade based on research.	To entertain, to sell, or to promote a viewpoint.
Who wrote the article?	A scholar or researcher often with an institutional or academic affiliation.	Freelance writers, magazine staff or a well-known person not necessarily an expert in the field.
How carefully is it documented?	Always has references, footnotes and/or a bibliography. Follows a style like APA or MLA.	Rarely cites sources or makes broad references to sources.