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To find journal articles
There are two steps to finding journal articles:
- Find a citation to an article: the title (and author) of an article
along with which issue of which journal it was published in
- Find a copy of the issue of the journal
| Find a citation to an article |
- Select an appropriate source in the list of
Indexes & Databases
- Choose an index or database listed on a
Subject Research
Guide page
- If you already have a book or article on a topic, look in its
bibliography for more articles, and for authors to search in an index.
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more info |
| Find a copy of the issue of the journal |
- In many of the Indexes & Databases, you can click the SFX button or a
link to check Wesleyan holdings which will indicate whether we have
the journal online or in print.
- Search for the journal title in the
Journal Locator
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more info |
To find a citation to an article:
From the library's list of
Indexes & Databases, select an index appropriate for the topic. You can select from
the full list (the "Info" buttons outline what topics are covered in each) or
"Choose a Department" to see which indexes are most likely to be
relevant to each field. Here are a few good general indexes that are usually
good places to start:
-
Expanded Academic - Articles, including many in full text, from both
scholarly and general interest periodicals
in the social
sciences, arts and humanities, education, science and technology, and current
events.
- Lexis-Nexis - Full text
articles from many newspapers, magazines, trade journals, transcripts, and
other sources on general news, business, political, legal, and medical
subjects.
- WilsonWeb - A
set of indexes covering academic sources in social sciences,
humanities, and arts, as well as coverage of nonacademic sources in Readers
Guide. Includes many full text articles since the mid 1980s, and index
coverage as far back as 1890.
Remember to use the Help screens for tips searching different online indexes.
The general principles of searching online
databases are similar for all, but each has different ways of implementing
those general principles and different advanced searching techniques and special
features to modify and specify your search. Also, standardized subject headings
(in those indexes which use subject headings) are often different in different
indexes.
Subject Research
Guide are available for each department or major program at Wesleyan.
Along with reference works, web sites, and other resources, each guide lists the
library's indexes and databases which are most likely to be of use to
researchers in the field. Keep in mind, though, that other indexes may also be
helpful, especially for interdisciplinary research.
Once you find one a few books, articles, and other sources, check their
bibliographies for more articles as well as other sources. Those sources, of
course, will be older than the article or book itself, so also note author names
and search for more recent publications by those authors. In addition, you can
search a citation index (Arts and Humanities Citation Index, Science Citation
Index, or Social Science Citation Index, all listed on the library's
Indexes & Databases page) for the article to see if it has been cited by other
articles since it has been published.
To find a copy of the issue of the journal:
Most of the library's have the SFX software to check Wesleyan library
holdings. When you find a citation to an article you want, there will be an "SFX"
button or a link to "check Wesleyan holdings." Click the button or the link for:
- a link to an online version of the article, if available
- a link to search the Wesleyan Library Catalog if we have a print
subscription
- a link to make an interlibrary loan request if we do not have a
subscription to the journal.
For indexes without SFX or for article citations found in bibliographies or
elsewhere, search in the
Journal Locator for the title of the journal the article was published in to
see whether and where we have a subscription to the journal, and what
volumes/issues of the journal are available.
- A "Connect" button means we have a direct online subscription to the
journal; click to access the journal, then browse or search for the article.
- A button with the name of one of the library's online databases means the
journal is available in that database; click to access the database, then
search for the article.
- A "CTW" button means we have a print subscription to the journal; click to
access the record for the journal in the Wesleyan Library Catalog to see which
issues we have and where they are shelved.
For more details on finding journal articles, see the guide to Locating
Journal Articles.
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