Searching Tips
You can use these searching tips for your other classes too.
- Article databases and the catalog don't recognize phrase searching, so break your topic into the main keywords or concepts. For example, if your topic is the effect of clear cutting on virgin forests, don't type "the effect of clear cutting of a virgin forest" in the search box. Instead, type in "'clear cutting" AND "virgin forest" or something similarly structured.
- When you find a good article, look at the footnotes or endnotes to see what articles the author read--you might find a few good ones that you can use. See the box below for how to find articles when you have a citation.
- Use truncation to expand your search results, for example, if you type in "environ*" it will capture environment, environmental, etc. Some databases do this automatically, but many do not.
- Click on linked author names, subject headings, or any other descriptive terms in book and article descriptions.
Articles - Best Bets
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new windowGet full-text access to magazines, newspapers, and scholarly journals in the sciences, social sciences, business, education, and the humanities. Full-text may be available via Find-It. Useful place to begin broad searches for general topics.
- Bibliography of Indigenous Peoples in North America This link opens in a new windowThe Bibliography of Indigenous Peoples in North America indexes books, essay collections, journals and government documents covering all aspects of indigenous North American culture, history and life. Covers documents from the sixteenth century to the present. Useful to anyone exploring the contributions, struggles, and issues surrounding North Americas indigenous peoples.
- America: History & Life This link opens in a new windowA comprehensive bibliography of articles on the history and culture of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. Use with Historical Abstracts. Full-text may be available via Find-It.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowJSTOR contains the complete digitized backfile of core scholarly journals from a broad range of academic disciplines.
- Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new windowIndexes journals, books and dissertations on world history (excluding the United States and Canada) from 1450 to the present. Use with America History and Life. Full-text may be available via Find-It.
- Humanities International Complete This link opens in a new windowSearch an index of journals, books and other important reference sources published worldwide in the humanities. Contains unique full-text content not available in other indexes. Additional full-text may be available via Find-It.
- MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new windowComprehensive index of critical, scholarly material in literature, criticism, drama, language, linguistics, humanities, and folklore. Worldwide coverage includes articles chosen from over 3,500 journals, monographs, dissertations, bibliographies, and proceedings. Also known as the Modern Language Association International Bibliography. Links to full-text when available.
- American Periodicals This link opens in a new windowContains page images of historic American magazines, journals and newspapers. These resources illustrate the development of American culture, politics and society from the mid-eighteenth century through 1900.
- Google ScholarThis is the only free scholarly article database on the list. In order to see if you can get a copy of the article(s) you need, you have to go through the link above if you are off campus. Using the link above lets Google Scholar know that you are a student at Wright State University and that the University Libraries subscribe to the journal. If there is not a full-text link next to the citation, you will be taken to a pay-wall. If this happens, submit an InterLibrary Loan request for a copy. You never have to pay for an article as a Wright State student.
Google Scholar
Google Scholar works even better when you have it connected to your library. Set up your library link and get results that are available through the University Libraries.
- Click Library Link
- Type Wright State in the Library Access Links search Bar
- Click Search
- Check the box next to Wright State University-Full Text
- Click Save and start searching!
