Library and Internet Skills

How to Find Journal Articles

Searching Journal Indexes

Every index is slightly different, but the techniques below work in most online indexes.

Most indexes will ask you to type in keywords about your topic.

Keyword searching

Keyword searching is the most common way to search an online index. To effectively search an index you should:

1. Analyze your topic and divide it into separate concepts.
2. Brainstorm keywords that represent those concepts. Keywords could be synonyms, different forms of the word, more general or more specific words, or related words.
3. Combine keywords in a strategy.

Examples follow

Topic: The effect of television violence on children.

Once you have come up with a list of keywords to search type them into the search box in the index. Note:

• If you have multiple concepts use the word "and" between each concept For example: children and television and violence
• If you have multiple terms for each concept use the word "or" between each word that describes that concept and then place the set in brackets. For example: (children or child or kids or teenagers or adolescents) and (Television or tv or mass media or cartoon or cartoons) and (violence or violent)

What do "and," "or," and "*" mean? See Boolean and Truncation

Finding Phrases

• will find words only where they appear together
• Some databases require quotes around phrases or else they will search them as though there was an 'and' in between.

"post colonial theory"

"acid rain"

"art deco"

"assisted suicide"

Searching by Author:

Always place the surname first. It is not necessary to place a comma in between the last name and the first name.

• doxtator mark
• saura j*

Tip: Using an asterisk (*) after the first initial instead of spelling out the first name is often an effective search strategy.

Topic/Subject:

Keep your terms general. If you do not find any relevant articles try choosing more search terms and using boolean and truncation to expand your search

• "gene therapy"
• "educational evaluation"
• Shakespeare

Tip: If your topic has multiple is a phrase it is a good idea to put the phrase in quotations. This forces most databases to find the words together.

Subject/Descriptor searching

• searches a formal set of vocabulary assigned to each citation by the indexers
• good for focusing a search
• called 'subjects' or 'descriptors'
• look up correct terms in the database's online thesaurus or index
• use 'descriptors' or 'subjects' assigned to good citations that you have found. You may be able to click on them.

Searching within a particular journal

• Many databases will let you restrict your search to a particular journal. Sometimes, you will find "publication title," or "journal title" listed as one of the search options.
• Sometimes there will be a separate box for entering the journal name.
• You can sometimes find out if an index covers the journal you are interested in by consulting a "list of journals," or "list of sources."
• In some databases, the "journals search" option will have an index you can browse for titles.
• Ulrich's Periodical Directory (online under More Resources from the Library home page) will also tell you what database your journal is indexed in.

Boolean Searching

"AND"

• narrows your search
• finds all of your keywords in the same citation/article.

Examples

• children and television and violence
• aids and alternative treatment* king lear and image*

"OR"

1. combines different words for the same concept
2. will find 'any' of the words

Examples

• media or television
• seniors or aged or elderly
• ADHD or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
• work or employment or labour

"NOT"

• excludes concepts from your search
• use NOT sparingly, you may eliminate valuable relevant articles

Examples

• diabetes and experiments not mice (finds articles on diabetes experiments that do not refer to mice)
• python not monty (to find articles on the snake, not the comedians)

Truncation and Wild Cards

Truncation is a technique that allows you to look up various spellings of a word without typing in every variation.

The symbol for truncation is usually an asterisk (*). For example:

Child* will find Child, Children, Childless, Childlessness, Childish, etc.

Encyclop*dia will find encyclopaedia or encyclopedia.

A wild card allows you to replace a single letter inside of a word.

A question mark (?) is usually used as a wildcard. For example:

wom?n will find women or woman.

Colo?r will find colour or color

Combining strategies

• You can combine the strategies above for a more sophisticated search
• Brackets are often used to combine strategies in one search.
• The information inside the brackets are processed first.
• In some databases you combine strategies through entering information in different search boxes. Others allow you to combine your previous search results or 'sets.'

Examples

• child* and (television or mass media) and violen*
• (waste or effluent) and great lakes

More search options

• in addition to author, title, subject, keyword, many databases have a variety of search options or criteria to help you focus your search. See the individual index's help screen for details.
• You can often focus your search by: language date of publication geographic area items with full-text only

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