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McNair Scholars: 7. Find Articles

Access Your Databases

To get to subject lists of databases, start on the library homepage and click on the Articles/Databases button.

Articles/Databases button on the right side of the libraries' homepage

 

On the Databases by Subject page, select one of the subjects that encompasses your research topic. You may find useful databases under several subject categories.

Databases By Subject webpage, subjects in alphabetical order

 

Consider the Best Bets databases first for relevance to your research topic.

List of 26 psychology databases, with the Best Bets at the top

Google Scholar

Another resource you can use to find scholarly sources is Google Scholar. It is searched the same way as regular Google, but you will find better quality materials when using Google Scholar. It primarily finds scholarly journal articles, but also finds books, book chapters, dissertations, and other sources published by academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities, etc. You won't find everything that's out there or even everything that the UW-Whitewater libraries have, but it can be a useful tool.

On the UW-Whitewater campuses, Google Scholar is set up to automatically interact with Find It, a tool that will find you the full text of articles and books we have or offer you a way to borrow them for free if we do not. However, Find It does not show up for every citation that appears in Google Scholar. If no Find It link appears, try the Journal Search to see whether and where we have a particular journal, magazine or newspaper and what dates are available.

Do not pay for articles you find through Google Scholar. We can get them for you for free using ILLiad!

To set up the Find It/Google Scholar interactivity on your personal desktop computer, laptop, tablet, etc. follow these instructions:

  • Go to Google Scholar
  • Click the three bars in the upper left corner
  • Click on Settings
  • Click on Library Links
  • Type UW-Whitewater in the textbox
  • Click on magnifying glass button
  • Click in the checkbox preceding UW-Whitewater - Find It@UW-Whitewater

Off-Campus Access

Databases and the full text content they contain can be accessed both on and off-campus.

The first time you click on a database name, you'll be prompted to log into the proxy server with your UW-W Net-ID and password (just like you do to access your UW-W email, WINS account, and Canvas courses). After a while of non-use you will be timed out. Just sign in again.

If you have issues logging in or accessing online full text articles and books, please check the Troubleshooting section of our Get Help page for known issues. The three most common solutions are: 

  1. Use the most recent version of Chrome, Firefox, or Safari browser (Edge and Internet Explorer can cause access problems)
  2. Use Citrix (step by step instructions) from this webpage: https://gateway.uww.edu
  3. Use the VPN (Virtual Private Network). Want to watch a video on VPN? See http://youtu.be/hE-f8-Zp7jU

Note: Research@UWW does not require that you sign in at first. However, you should sign in anyway after your first search for seamless access to more full text and to Request/UW Request borrowing.

Find the Full Text From a Database

journal articlesMost databases have some full text articles and/or chapters in addition to citations. To access the full text there will be a button or text to click on that says something like: PDF, HTML, or Full Text.

When an article is not available in that database, use Find It button button/link to determine whether and where the UWW libraries have it. One of several things will happen when you click on it.

  1. You will be taken to a "LibKey" screen with one or more Full Text Format Options on the right side. Select Article Link to go to a database that does have the full text.
  2. You will be taken to Research@UWW. To see whether an article, chapter, book, video, etc. is available look in the:
    1. View Online section to see if there is a link to the item in one of the libraries' subscription databases.
    2. Get It section to see if there are other ways to access the full text of the article.
  3. If you have a citation for something UWW does not have access to AND are not in a database or Research@UWW, use the Journals Search (also on the libraries' homepage) to determine whether and where the Library has a particular periodical (journal, magazine, newspaper, etc.). If:

    UW-Whitewater has it, click on the link provided to the periodical and then search the periodical for it. UW-Whitewater does NOT have it, go to the library homepage, select My Accounts, and Logon to ILLiad, then fill out the request form.

    In the Get It section you will see other ways to access the full text of the article. Either:

    UW-Whitewater has the item physically in one of the UWW libraries. If at your campus, you will go to the listed collection to get it. If at the other campus, use the "Request" option to have it sent to your campus. Some people who fit this set of criteria can use ILLiad to have articles or book chapters scanned as a PDFs for you to access online. UW-Whitewater does NOT have the needed item in one of the UWW libraries. Select Please sign in for more request options --> Sign in. Select UW-W Students / Staff Login >, and then Log in. Complete the multifactor authentication through Duo. Click on the We Can Get it for You (Document Delivery/ILLiad) for articles and chapters or UW-Request for books, media, government and other items.

    How? Check out the How to Use Find It and the Journals Search guide or watch this How to Use Find It video