Finding journal articles

What is a library database?

Databases:

• are a research tool
• are used to search for journal articles
• can also contain other information; such as newspaper articles, conference papers, company information and legal cases
• can be specific to your faculty or subject area; e.g. Creative Arts students will typically use different databases from Nursing students
• can be searched by topic keywords
• are being constantly updated with new articles

Note: Library databases are a subscription service. In general, their content is not freely available on the Internet.

Choose a database

Since databases can be specific to your faculty or subject area, it is important to recognise the databases that are key to your area of study.

How to find databases

Now try finding your area of study and some databases most useful to you.

Search a library database

To effectively search a database, you will need to:

1. Identify keywords and alternative keywords from the topic. Revise  identifying keywords earlier in this module.

2. Develop a search strategy using connectors such as AND and OR.  Revise using connectors.

3. Truncate key terms to identify alternate word endings where appropriate (eg. child* will locate child, children, childless, childish). Truncation symbols vary between databases.

4. After you have searched you will need to evaluate your results for relevance and quality. Depending on your evaluation you may need to modify your search strategy.

Database search which uses the above techniques in the Proquest database

Further help using a database

When you need to find articles for an assignment, use the search strategy planner to help you to record a search strategy. For legal research, use the Legal research strategy planner.

Help for using various databases is available from the Database tips page.

Locate the full text of a journal article

Some databases provide the full text (complete article) while others provide the citation and abstract only.

When a database only provides a citation or abstract, you need to search the Library catalogue to check if the Library has access to the full text.

How to find the full text of a journal article [1.15MB Flash file] | PDF version [15 slides 777KB PDF]

E-journals are available to all enrolled UOW students, irrespective of study location.

Print (hardcopy) journals

Some local libraries will have print (hardcopy) journal collections.

Check your local library to see if it has print journals and how you can search for these.

Choose one example below to learn how to locate print journals.

• Australia PDF version [251KB]
• Dubai

Move on to Module 4: Plagiarism