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Finding, Using, & Citing Sources: A Guide for Student Journal Writers: Finding Great Sources

Finding the best articles on a topic

Follow these Golden Rules for searching:

For greater focus, try these tips:

  • Use quotes around exact phrases ("polar bears")
  • Search in the title field only for the most focused results (an advanced search option)
  • Search for articles in specific sources only (an advanced search option)

Need fewer results? Use filters and limits:

  • Limit results to scholarly & peer-reviewed items
  • Limit to the most recent articles
  • Filter by discipline or by subject term

Compare ...

  • polar bears PCBs (5,990 items)
  • "polar bears" PCBs - with both those terms appearing in the title of the item, and appearing in the title of the article/item, and limited to scholarly & peer-reviewed items (21 items)
  • "polar bears" in the title, PCBs appearing anywhere, limited to scholarly & peer-reviewed (138 items)

Need more results?

  • Use a truncation 'wildcard' - don't accidentally exclude good information! 
    environment* will return environment, environments, environmental, environmentalist, ...
  • include synonyms in parentheses (sustainable or green)

Journalism Essentials

Browse Journalism Essentials, a set of guidelines published by the American Press Institute. Sections include:

 

 

Finding background information

View a list of over 250 scholarly encyclopedias on broad and narrow subjects - and that's just the ones that are online! Collections of articles on all subjects from the Encyclopedia Arctica to the Encyclopedia of World Popular Culture.

Similarly, a keyword search of 'encycloped* [subject keyword]' will often lead you to great background sources (try it! plug your keyword in here).

One of the Library's 47 Research Guides will be able to recommend key encyclopedias, handbooks, and article databases that are specific to a particular research discipline, such as neuroscience or economics.

You can also contact a librarian who works in that subject area for research suggestions.

 

Using the Library from off-campus

Did you know you can use the Library's online databases, journals and ebooks just as easily from off-campus?  Just open a secure connection before you start searching.

For complete information, see "Off-Campus Access to Library Resources."