- You have access to journals in three formats:
(1) Print
(2) Online
(3) Microform - We receive most periodicals electronically, which means that you can access articles on-campus or from home.
- There are 2 types of published articles:
(1) Popular (e.g., Newsweek and The Economist) and
(2) Scholarly/peer-reviewed (e.g., Modern Drama and Shakespeare Quarterly)
Articles
There are many types of published articles. They can be popular (usually either news or opinion, e.g., Newsweek) or scholarly (peer-reviewed articles based on research, e.g., Modern Drama). Peer review is the process by which a piece of scholarship is evaluated and judged for quality and accuracy by other scholars and experts before it is published.
A good way to find articles on your topic is to use an article database, which allows you to search for articles by topic.
Databases
Some databases (such as Academic Search Complete and JSTOR) cover journals in many fields, while others (such as PsycINFO, Biological Abstracts, or Humanities Abstracts) only cover journals in a specific field.
Choosing a Database
There are 2 good ways to choose a database from the many we subscribe to here at Brooklyn College Library:
- Browse the Library's website under Resources By Subject for databases in your field.
- Talk to a reference librarian for assistance choosing the best database for your research question. To find out how, visit the Ask-A-Librarian page.
NOTE: An excellent choice for getting started is Academic Search Complete, an article database that provides citations or full text for over 3,200 scholarly publications covering many academic areas, including social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, language and linguistics, arts & literature, medical sciences, and ethnic studies. Link to Academic Search Complete on the Library's website under Databases (articles and more). (See the Off-Campus Access page for instructions on accessing databases from home.)
Searching in a Database
What a Database Tells You
- Citation
Most databases give you a citation to an article. The citation is the article title and author, the journal title, and the volume, issue number, pages, and date. Sometimes a citation is for a chapter in a book. See a typical citation for an article below:Why do Similar Areas Adopt Different Developmental Strategies? A study of two puzzling Chinese provinces.
By: Donaldson, John A. Journal of Contemporary China, Jun2009, Vol. 18 Issue 60, p421-444, 24p. - Abstract
A summary that accompanies some article citations. - Subjects & Descriptors
Article citations are often accompanied by subject headings (or descriptors), which show what the article is about and provide good terms for continued searching.
