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Library Instruction Guide: Find Articles

Help for writing a research paper

Finding Databases by Subject

Finding Databases by Subject 

Allen Library subscribes to over 11 databases on your behalf, because they are valuable information resources for academic work.

There is also a good database selection available through the State of Kansas Library. We have added a new database:

Credo Reference , which will also search from the Allen Databases. It also has a great deal of research helps. Use the "help" button to see all the features.

Want to  find the right databases for your subject?

Why Use a Database...

Why use a database rather than the Web?  The short answer is that a database is more likely to provide you with information of a scholarly nature, appropriate to college-level research projects.

Databases -

  • are provided by subscription
  • contain generally high quality of information
  • contain peer-reviewed articles
  •  articles are by known authors
  • contain scholarly information
  • are subject-specific
  • support refined searching

The Web -

  • free access (you get what you pay for!)
  • we must carefully analyze information quality
  • sites are rarely peer-reviewed
  • authors are not necessarily known
  • contain mostly popular information
  • address general knowledge
  • may support advanced search techniques

Find Articles

Articles from journals and newspapers can be found in DATABASES.  When in EBSCOhost, you may also search by Publication as well by the normal way of using key words in the search fields.

Full-Text Articles

When searching for an article, choose 'full text' to get the articles that are complete, not just a summary:

If the Allen Library does not have the article, search EBSCOhost database for this article.

If this does not produce results, you may request a copy of the article by JOURNAL ARTICLE LOAN.

 

Scholarly Results

Many databases contain a mix of scholarly and popular articles.  You can usually, depending on the database, screen out the popular articles by selecting a Limiter that says Scholarly or Peer-reviewed,

For example, in Academic Search Premier there is a check box:

Click in that box and you will get only scholarly results.