Articles will most often appear in journals. Journals typically include both trade publications and scholarly, peer-reviewed journals, and both types focus on a specific discipline or topic. Articles written by scholars or research practitioners focus on trends and issues in a particular field. Some key characteristics of articles:
When you hear your professor or librarian say "database," we are referring to the search engines you use to find information for your paper or project. Databases are collections full of source material.
Not all databases are the same. Some databases are collections of thousands of full-text books or articles, meaning you can read them in their entirety. Other databases provide basic source information, which we call citations or abstracts. When we reference a "citation database, "A&I database," or a simple "index," we are referring to a database that only contains citations and abstracts. These databases only provide you with the citation to a source (author name(s), title, year of publication, publishing press, DOI number, etc.) rather than access to the full text. However, you can still use the citation to request the full text article using our Article Request Form. NOTE: in the maximum amount you are willing to pay field, select none.
Not sure which database(s) to use?
Try narrowing it down using our Research Guides by Subject.
If you already know the database you want to use...
...check out our A-Z List of Databases.
Have the citation or abstract, but need to see if we have full text access?
Use Journal Finder to find the journal listed in the citation. Check the journal access points and coverage dates to see if we have full text access. If it is not available full text, fill out an Article Request Form.
