Articles
Articles are published in periodicals. There are many types of periodicals. Being aware of them will help you select the ones that best cover your research needs. In general, journal articles are the ones mostly consulted in academic research, as they offer in-depth scientific information. However, in some cases, it is also acceptable to use articles coming from popular sources, such as magazines and newspapers. Most periodicals are issued multiple times within a year, which means that they are sources of recent information.
Library article collections
There is a wealth of periodicals and articles in the library's subscription databases. The most important such databases in your field of study are the ones listed below. For information on how to access these databases from off-campus, you may consult our off-campus access page. To find out tips about how to make successful searches when using library databases, you may click the button below.
Searching library databases is a bit different from searching Google. Sometimes entering relevant keywords in a database search box will not lead you to the most relevant results. At other times, you may end up retrieving too many or too few results.
When faced with such issues, using one or more of the searching techniques provided below may prove to be helpful.
- Boolean operators, such as AND, OR, NOT, allow you to combine keywords and either broaden or narrow down your results.
- Truncation broadens your search to include various word endings and spellings (e.g., comput* will retrieve results, which include words with this root).
- Phrase searching (i.e., using parentheses or quotation marks around strings of search words) allows you to search for adjacent words as phrases.
- Field searching allows you to limit your results based on specific database fields, such as author, title, publication, date, subject, etc.
Keep in mind that different databases may recognize different Boolean operators, truncation and/or phrase searching symbols, as well as include different search fields. To find out what works in each database, make sure you consult the specific database's help section.
Apart from the above searching techniques, you may also try some of the following.
If you wish to limit down your results, try using:
- more specific/precise search terms.
- more search terms.
- database filters.
- database controlled vocabulary/thesaurus, if available.
If you wish to broaden up your search results, try using:
- more general/broader search terms.
- synonym search terms.
- other databases.
For more information on how to effectively search library databases, you may consult our "Constructing searches" guide.
► Subject-specific collections
- CIAO This link opens in a new windowFind publications in politics and international affairs by renowned publishing institutions such as the Academy of Political Science, the Global Political Trends Center (GPoT), and the Institute of World Economics and Politics.
- Legal Source (EBSCO) This link opens in a new windowSubject-specific full-text collection of various types of publications on all areas of law.
- Business Source Complete (EBSCO) This link opens in a new windowSubject-specific full-text collection of various types of publications related to business.
- SocINDEX with Full Text (EBSCO) This link opens in a new windowSubject-specific full-text collection of various types of publications in sociology and social work.
► Multi-disciplinary collections
- Academic Search Complete (EBSCO) This link opens in a new windowMultidisciplinary full-text collection of various types of publications.
- Gale Academic OneFile This link opens in a new windowMultidisciplinary full-text collection of various types of publications.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowMultidisciplinary full-text collection of various types of publications and images.
- Sage Journals This link opens in a new windowMultidisciplinary full-text collection of international, peer-reviewed journals, including high-impact research titles published on behalf of numerous scholarly and professional societies.
- Taylor & Francis Online This link opens in a new windowExplore the Law and the Politics & International Relations sections to find articles in political science and law published by the Taylor & Francis, Routledge, and Dove Medical Press imprints.
- ScienceDirect This link opens in a new windowMultidisciplinary full-text database that provides access to a specially-curated selection of Elsevier's scholarly journals.
- Project Muse This link opens in a new windowMultidisciplinary full-text collection of scholarly journals related mainly to the humanities and social sciences.
- Annual Reviews This link opens in a new windowMultidisciplinary platform providing access to selected Annual Reviews titles.
