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ENGL 105, Academic Writing (Ron Sweeney): Journal Articles

What Are Databases and Why You Need Them?

Types of Journals

Not all journals are created equal, and not all will be appropriate for every research need. These are the most common types of journals you are likely to encounter in your research, presented in order from most to least academic or scholarly:

  • Scholarly Journals: reports of original research, theoretical, experimental or applied; many are refereed/peer-reviewed
  • Trade/Professional Journals: current trends, news & events in a particular field; some are peer-reviewed
  • Journals of Commentary or Opinion: commentary on political & social issues; often source of specific political viewpoint, e.g., conservative, liberal, or specific interest group
  • Newspapers: current information, news stories; local & regional focus
  • Popular Magazines: current events & news; primary source for popular culture

How To Videos For Finding Journal Articles

How to Find a Journal by Title at the UFV Library

Finding Your Article Using Full Text Finder

Finding Articles from a Reference List: Part 1

Finding Articles from a Reference List: Part 2

 

More how-to videos are available on our YouTube Channel:

Parts of a Journal Article Citation

An M L A journal article citation with author, article title, journal title, and D O I highlighted.

Search UFV's databases and library catalogue all at once

Discover articles, books, videos, images, statistics, and more from the Library's print and online collections

Limit Your Results (optional)
~ OR ~

[Note: We are working to improve access to our collections and revising our subject headings to be more respectful and inclusive. Please be aware that you may see certain words or descriptions in search results or library materials which reflect the author’s attitude or that of the period in which the item was created and may now be considered offensive.]

Using the Find It Search Box

When you have done your search, don’t forget to use the limiters. The main ones are:

Available in Library Collection.............. you will be able to read the articles/books online or find them in the library
Scholarly Peer Reviewed Journals ..... if you need journal articles only
Print Books........................................ limits mainly to our physical book, collection
Subject ................................................... a listing of alternative keywords that you can use to improve your search
Geography............................................... want to limit to Canada? use this
Limit by Database  ................................ gives you a list of the databases that have been searched (from here you can limit to only one database)

 

There are a small number of databases which are not pre-indexed in the EBSCO's central index, including  Canadian Business and Current Affairs, Canadian Newsstand, and  CPI-Q.

The database names are displayed on the right side of the screen.  You may click on the database to view the additional search results.

Remember to use this toolbar to easily:

Email yourself the article

Cite your article (provides the citation in many different styles)

Permalink links to the article whether you are on or off campus. Use this link to email to your professor, or classmates.

 

  1. By default, Find It searches all terms you have entered, without the need to use AND.  For example: children television violence will find items that contain all 3 terms.
     
  2. By default, Find It searches through the full text of documents (if available).  This may cause a large number of results, and not all are relevant to your subject.  Results are returned in a relevancy ranked order. You can change the ranking to date if you wish.
     
  3. To improve the relevancy of your search results, enclose phrases in "quotation marks".  For example:  "British Columbia" or "global warming".
     
  4. Include the apostrophe.  For example, use "handmaid's tale" rather than "handmaids tale"
     
  5. To find variant endings for a word, use the * asterisk (truncation symbol.)  For example:  delinquen* finds delinquent, delinquents, delinquency
     
  6. To find books, e-books. videos or other items in the UFV library, refine your search by selecting "Catalogue only".  You can also limit to "Print books" if you want something to hold!
     
  7. To find scholarly journal articles, refine your search by selecting "Scholarly (Peer Reviewed)"
     
  8. You can refine a search by limiting to Language. However, be aware that many English language articles have not been tagged as English, so will be missing from your search results.
     
  9. Many items have direct links to retrieve the full text. For those that don't, use "Full Text Finder" to determine if UFV has the item in print or online.
     
  10. To add in more Canadian content, explore the "Continue Search" on the right side of the screen.

System Requirements

In order to effectively use all EBSCOhost features, the minimum browser requirements are Internet Explorer 7.0, Firefox 8.0, Google Chrome 16, and Safari 5.1 (for Macintosh). You must also have Adobe ® Reader® installed to view the PDF Full Text files. If you are using Visual Search, you must also install   Adobe ® Flash Player 8.0 or higher.

 

Custom made UFV tutorials:

Finding Books and Videos in the UFV Library

Limiting Your Library Search to Ebooks and Streaming Videos

Finding Your Article Using Full Text Finder

 

Tutorials from the service provider:

Search Selected Ebsco Databases

Research databases
Limit Your Results

 

This search box is limited to full text articles from databases like:

Sample searches:

Search:
Advertising and harm
"mass media" and influence

Remember to use the quotation marks which will force the search engine to search for your term as a phrase.

Need help? Ask us!

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