COMM 220 - Public Speaking: Articles & Databases
Getting Articles
If you need to find articles on a particular topic and you don't know which articles exist, use an article search engine to identify the articles. (See the Search Strategy page for more on this skill.) Multidisciplinary databases (e.g. Academic Search Premiere and the PSU Library front page search link to articles on a wide variety of topics. However, these databases may not be as focused as one of the subject databases whose coverage is directed at a particular discipline (i.e. business, or political science or sociology, etc.) Once you've identified articles you are interested in, click the 
icon next to the article citation to navigate to the article full text.
If you already have a citation to a journal article, follow the steps in the Known Article boxes (below right) to navigate to the full text.
Multidisciplinary Databases
- Academic Search PremierProvides selected full text, scholarly, and peer reviewed articles in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences.
- Google Scholar
This link opens in a new window
Google 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. - Ethnic NewswatchIncludes 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.
- Web of ScienceMaintains citation searching for high impact research journals in the arts and humanities, social sciences, and sciences and includes emerging sources citation indexing from 2005.
Ask a Librarian
Search Articles and Get Full Text from the Library Catalog
You can search the PSU Library Catalog for the full text of articles. Type or copy and paste the article title into the search box.
Look for the correct article from your search results. You will see you will see either a green "Online Access" link or a blue "Find & Request" link.
- The "Online Access" link means that full text access to the article is immediately available.
- The "Find & Request" link means that PSU does not have access to the article, but you can request it through Interlibrary Loan & Article Delivery.
For articles with a "Online Access" link, click the link, then follow the provider link to the full text.
Sometimes there are multiple links; they all should take you to the article, but if one doesn't work, try another.
The Peer Review Process Video
3 minute video on the peer review process, created by the North Carolina State University Libraries: http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/tutorials/pr/