Finding Articles with Interdisciplinary Databases
- JStor This link opens in a new windowA collection of full-text articles from over 3000 scholarly journals, many dating from the nineteenth-century to the last 4 or 5 years. A growing number of titles are available through the current issues, as part of their "Current Scholarship Program". Select Advanced Search to strategically search amongst 45 disciplines. Choose PDF from within JStor to properly view and print articles. For convenience, JStor is now searchable on Facebook.
- Project Muse This link opens in a new windowProvides access to scholarly journals and eBooks in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Dates of coverage varies per title.
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new windowComprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 8,500 full-text periodicals, including more than 7,300 peer-reviewed journals. In addition to full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for more than 12,500 journals and a total of more than 13,200 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc. The database features PDF content going back as far as 1887. Searchable cited references are provided for more than 1,400 journals.
Finding Articles with Art & Art Historical Databases
- Art & Architecture Source This link opens in a new windowCovers a broad range of related subjects, from fine, decorative and commercial art, to various areas of architecture and architectural design. Providing over 600 full-text journals, more than 220 full-text books, and a collection of over 63,0000 images, it is designed for use by a diverse audience, including art scholars, artists, designers, students and general researchers.
- Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson Co.) This link opens in a new windowArticles and other text materials from a variety of art publications.
- Arts & Humanities Citation Index (Web of Science) This link opens in a new windowArticles and other text materials published in scholarly journals in the arts and humanities. Subjects covered are the Arts, Humanities, Language (including Linguistics), Poetry, Music, Classical works, History, Philosophy, Archaeology, Architecture, Religion, Television, Theater, and Radio. Covers 1975 to the present.
Constructing Search Strings
Remember: Databases don't speak English.
Construct search strings to effectively find resources in databases.
Research Question: "What effect does media have on teens' body image?"
A good example of a search string:
"body image" AND media AND teens
A not great example of a search string:
media's effects on teen body image
Tips for Constructing Search Strings
- Use AND, OR, or NOT to expand, refine, or edit your search. AND will join two words or phrases together and search for both. NOT will search for one topic but not the other. And OR will search for either term you enter.
- Use quotes around phrases with two or more words.
- Boil your research question down into main ideas. For example, in the research question above, the main topics are: body image, teens, and media.
- Try using wildcards if you're looking for multiple spellings of a word. Like this: search wom*n, and you'll get results for woman, women, and womyn.