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Finding Subject Area Journals: Option 3. Article Search in Article Database

Article Search in Article Database

Instead of finding a journal first and then identifying a full text article in that journal, you can find an article first.  

1. Choose a database. Databases are listed alphabetically on the Library Database page. Some databases specialize is certain topics. You can limit the databases on the Library Database page by subject. For example, limiting to Education will list only the databases that are especially helpful for finding articles and journals related to topics in education. 

2. Do a keyword search. You may find that you need to use more specific keyword searches when searching for articles. For example, a keyword search for "teaching" in Education Research Complete or "biology" in Science Direct is too general.  A search for "standardized testing" in Education Full Text or "predatory slugs" in Science Direct is more specific. 

3. Exclude magazines and newspapers. Databases often allow users to limit to articles published in scholarly or peer-reviewed journals. Instructors often ask students to limit sources to these, too. 

4. Look for full text articles.  Databases often allow users to limit results to articles available in full text or use some kind of icon to indicate wither or not full text for an article is available.  

5. Identify a Journal. The results list in an article database includes both the title of the article and the name of the journal the article was published in.  If the name of a particular journal comes up over and over again in your results list, that's a sign that it may be an important journal for the profession - or at least that it publishes many articles on the topic.