Periodicals

• Articles are found in periodicals.
• Periodicals are publications that come out on a daily, weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis.
• There are five types of periodical articles: magazines, newspapers, journals, trade journals and refereed/peer reviewed journals.

Using periodical databases

• The best way to find articles is to look up your topic in a periodical database.
• Databases usually index articles from about 1980 to the present.
• Earlier material can be found in a few databases and in paper indexes to periodicals.

Follow these steps to locate articles:

1. Write down your topic and determine the keywords that will locate that subject.
2. Determine the date of the material that you need.
3. Determine which type of periodical that you need. Check with your teacher if you are unsure what her/his expectations are.
4. Use the Jump to databases by department link to locate a database by topic. You may want to use several databases for a long paper.
5. Link to an appropriate database and key in your search.
• Use Boolean operators (and or not) to narrow your search.
• Use truncation (use the symbol * after the root word) or synonyms to broaden your search.
• Limit your search to peer reviewed or refereed journals if necessary.
6. Display your search results and use the links at the bottom of each citation to locate your article. Click here for more explaination of Using Article Linker to find copies of articles.
7. Use Interlibrary Loan to get copies of articles not available in Owens Library.

Ask a librarian for help if you still cannot find what you need or if you need help citing an article.

Return to Search for Articles