Finding Articles on a Topic

1. From the library homepage, select "Articles, Papers, Reports" in the "Find Information" section


2. This brings you to a list of electronic resources organized by subject. For most papers, you can start with "General Resources". Otherwise, choose the subject area that fits your topic best.


3. Clicking on "General Resources" will bring up a list of databases that cover a wide range of topics. Let's start with Academic Search Premier (more information).


4. The first window you see in Academic Search Premier is the Basic Search. In the search box at the top of the page, type in a keyword or two for your topic, and click "Search". This will start a search for these words anywhere in the article.


5. The results page shows you a list of articles, including the title, author, journal title, and date. If you click on a title, you will see the article abstract, a short summary of what the article is about.


6. Scan the list of results to find articles that look relevant to your topic. If you don't see any that look useful, go back to the search page and try using different keywords to search again.


7. Some articles will be available online immediately--if you see a blue link with the words HTML Full Text or PDF Full Text, you can click there to read, save, or print the entire article. If the full text link is not there, you may still be able to find a copy online or at the library. See the "Get a Specific Article" page for how to do this.