Research, Citation, & Class Guides: Political Science 330 Public Policy Analysis: Finding Articles-Basics/Refresher

Basics/Refresher

STEP ONE: Select article databases to search

UW-Whitewater's libraries subscribe to many databases that can be used to find periodical (journal, magazine and newspaper) articles, as well as book chapters, dissertations, etc. Get help from librarians with selecting databases appropriate for your topic if needed.

Click Articles/Databases from the libraries' home page. Then do one of the following:

To find a database on your subject, click on the subject
To find a database you know by title, click "Databases A-Z" on the right, and then on the appropriate letter.

STEP TWO: Set limits and select search words (and amend your search as you review your results)

Check the limits that you can set (below the search box). You may want to limit to articles of a certain length, e.g., >2 pages, or articles in scholarly (peer reviewed) publications (Don't check that one if you selected the newspaper database!).

Do not limit results to those that are full-text in the databases you are searching, because the full text may be in other databases (the "Find It" button will help you determine that later).

Now translate your topic into search words:

It is worthwhile to be both comprehensive and detailed when searching, although when you first start you may have only a broader topic that reading some articles will help you focus more narrowly. Pay attention to how many results you get and whether they are relevant or not. Adjust your search accordingly, using words you find in relevant articles' titles, abstracts, and subject headings. Be thorough by using synonyms and truncation when there are multiple ways to refer to an concept. (Also see the box below called, "Using And, Or, and * in Searches")

Use OR between synonyms (you don't care which appear in your results).

Use AND between required concepts (words to the left as well as words to the right MUST appear in results

Use ( ) to group synonyms for one concept if your search also uses AND to require another concept

Use * (in most databases) to truncate if variant endings on a word stem are acceptable

Start with the most obvious word(s) or phrase(s).

You'll see how many articles are found in each database searched. Did you get too few? Too many?

You can see subjects assigned to the articles and you can add or remove them, or amend your entire search with words from article abstracts, subject headings, and titles. Watch how the changes affect the number of results and how relevant they are.

STEP THREE: Evaluate your results and select appropriate articles

How do you know whether an article is scholarly or not? Check out the Scholarly Journal v. Popular Magazine Articles guide.

Obtain citation information and either print or save the articles selected. In some databases you can get help with citation formatting (in this guide, see the "Citing" tab's segment on "Citing Help in Databases").

In some database vendor's databases, e.g., EBSCOhost databases, you can also create an account and save articles and/or searches there. If you do not have an account, using folders provided in a database only lasts during your current session. If you have an account and log in, the saved materials will be there the next time you login.

STEP FOUR (optional): Run your search in other databases for additional results