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Basic Guide to Resources for Research

Already have a citation to an article?

Searching for articles on a topic

Step 1: Determine the type of article that you need

  • Journals–A publication, issued on a predictable schedule, that contains scholarly articles written by researchers and for researchers in a subject area.
  • Peer-reviewed journals (also called refereed journals)– Scholarly journals that only publish articles which have been reviewed by scholars in the field of interest.
  • Magazines–A publication, issued on a predictable schedule, that is intended for the general public.
  • Newspapers

Step 2: Create a search strategy

  • Select keywords–Select terms that describe the main concepts of your topic. Include synonyms.

  • Use Boolean operators–combine your keywords using AND and OR
    • AND narrows your search by looking for articles with all of the words
    • OR broadens your search by looking for articles with any of the words
  • Use quotation marks to search for phrases
  • Use parentheses to indicate search order--Search statements within parentheses are performed first.
  • Example:  For search topic-- What is the effect of dark chocolate on health?
                       Use Search strategy: "dark chocolate" and (health or wellness)

Step 3: Search a database

The following multidisciplinary databases are good starting places:

  • Academic Search Complete Restricted to faculty, students, and staff at The University of Missouri


    Academic Search Complete: Search for magazine and journal articles from 1984 to date.
    Note: This database provides an option to limit your search results to scholarly (peer reviewed) journals.
     
  • Scopus Restricted to faculty, students, and staff at The University of Missouri 

    Scopus: Search for articles in over 18,000 peer reviewed journals and find out who is citing them.
     
  • JSTOR

    JSTOR: Access back files of over 300 journals from the sciences, social sciences and arts and humanities (does not include the last five years of issues)
  • Discover @ MU Restricted to faculty, students, and staff at The University of Missouri
    Search Discover @ MU for articles, books, and more!
  • More databases

Step 4: Find the full-text for articles

  • Click on the Find It @MU icon,  FindIt@MU , found in most of our databases to see if full-text is available.