Finding Scholarly Articles
Where to find and how to use scholarly journal articles for research
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Back Links:
Back Links:
These links will bring you back to the "Research Process" page or the "Finding Information" home page. You can also navigate by using the left sidebar.
Article Databases:
Article Databases:
The middle section, titled "Key Resources," contains links to databases you need to find links to scholarly articles. You need to click on the second tab, marked "Article Databases".
What about Google Scholar?
Google Scholar is a good place to find scholarly articles and other publications by university affiliated scholars. However, most of the time, you do not get direct access to the full-text versions of the articles without having to pay. As a student at RDC, your tuition contributes to the subscriptions the library makes to databases such as Ebsco and JStor, giving you full access to the material without having to pay.
Article Databases in the History libguide:
Article Databases in the History libguide:
In that "Key Resources" box in the History libguide, clicking on the first tab, "Article Databases" lists eight of the most often used databases for research in history, in addition to Google Scholar.
For the purpose of the example below, we will use the first on the list, "America, History and Life" by Ebsco, but they all function in very similar ways.
Note: Most databases are reserved for RDC users and will require you to log in if you are working from home. See the "Off-Campus Access" instructions at the bottom of this page.
Are these the only databases available?
Are these the only databases available?
Of course not! For a complete listing of databases accessible through the RDC Library, follow this link to the A-Z list of research databases available on the History Libguide.
America, History and Life and Historical Abstracts
America, History and Life and Historical Abstracts
America, History and Life (AHL) and Historical Abstracts (HA), both hosted by Ebsco, are actually two halves of one large database formerly catalogued by an American publisher called ABC Clio. They complement each other: AHL covers work published about the history of Canada and the United States from the dawn of time whereas HA covers work published about the history of the rest of the world since 1450. These two databases are the most useful to do research on history.
Even more interesting, if you start with either of those databases and you click the "Choose Databases" link above the search box, you can add other Ebsco resources such as Humanities Search Complete, and others that can be useful depending on the topic of your research.
JStor
JStor
JStor is an excellent database for all humanities and social sciences and can be used in historical research, but you will also encounter works in other disciplines, which may make your results very broad. The big advantage of JStor is that it is not only a database: it contains PDF links to every article listed in it. Also, if you are doing historical work on the Middle Ages, for example, it would be the most interesting place to look, as Historical Abstracts stops at 1450.
Searching America, History and Life
Searching America, History and Life
If you click on the "Show all" link besides the name of the database at the top, you can search several of Ebsco's databases at the same time.
You can start by entering key words into the search bar and launch it directly. This is not Google: do not enter a whole phrase. Just key words.
Choose the key words carefully to have a manageable number of results. The results will not show in the order they are necessarily most useful to you, so you will likely have to scroll through several pages of results if your search terms are too broad.
Key words should have resulted from previous research you did in more general sources of information such as encyclopedias and books.
Use Filters for best results
Use Filters for best results
Filters can already be accessed from the home page. Simple ones are to reduce results to academic journals (you are likely not looking for books and you probably don't want dissertations) and to eliminate the languages you do not speak by choosing only the ones you do.
Don't add too many filters from the beginning; it may reduce your results too much. You can add filters (also called limiters) later on.
Search results and types of documents
Search results and types of documents
For the fun of it, I simply used my name for a search, knowing it would yield a small number of results.
I removed the "Academic Journal" filter to demonstrate that this search tool can bring up a variety of types of documents, including book reviews, academic journal articles, dissertations... and possibly books. For undergraduate papers, these databases are most useful in finding scholarly journal articles and book reviews.
The English language filter was kept, which eliminated 4 documents in French.
Limiters
Limiters
If you do a search that yields too many results (over 100), before scrolling further, check whether you may want to either add key words, use boolean operators in the search (AND, OR, NOT), or add limiters by using the various checkboxes and toggles in the left sidebar highlighted in yellow here.
Full Text?
Full Text?
If you have little time ahead of yourself, you may want to have access to the articles in their full text version as quickly as possible. In this case, the results that indicate "PDF Full Text" or that indicate a link to a "Full Text Finder" may be most useful in the short term. However, if you find a document that does not indicate either, don't hesitate to request it through InterLibrary Loan. The form can be filled online and the article will be emailed to you free of charge.
Saving search results
Saving search results
Most databases allow you to save your search results, which can make your search more efficient and reduce the risk of forgetting important bibliographical information for which you would have to search again.
Whether you use that feature or not, always remember to take notes on what information you found where.
Research is not a quick process!
Research is not a quick process!
Remember that you will not necessarily hit the jackpot on the first search. Nor on the second. Nor maybe on the tenth. Try and try again, but do it intelligently. Here are a few tips to help you find the information you nfeed without too much frustration:
As you find information in encyclopedias, books, and other sources, take note of possible keywords for further research. I find that drawing a concept or key word mind map helps to keep them in order. These could be:
Names of people related to events
Place names (especially if they change over time)
Various ways in which an event has been labelled through time (for example, the Red River "Rebellion", "Uprising", "Resistance")
Organisations or institutions connected to the events
Ideologies
Use key words, not phrases, in your searches. Use boolean operators to expand or limit your searches when needed.
Use limiters or filters, but don't use them too early in the process.
Keep a research journal, with information about what information was found where (and possibly when) so that you don't repeat the same searches over and over.
Remember that research is not linear, but circular. For example, you can go back to encyclopedias after reading specialised scholarly articles to expand your search again.
Do not hesitate to ask for help! Your instructor and the dedicated team of librarians are there to help you.
Off-campus access:
Off-campus access:
When you do research at the library, you can access any of the resources linked in these libguides. However, when you do research from home, you may hit a "paywall" asking you for your iCard barcode. This is due to the fact that accessing some resources is reserved to subscribers. It includes Credo Reference and most scholarly journals and databases. The college does have a subscription and you can access these resources free of charge, even from home.
When you try to access a restricted resource, a pop-up page will appear prompting you to enter your iCard barcode number and PIN. You can easily obtain the 4-digit PIN you need by contacting the LIbrary.
Follow these links to find other types of sources:
Follow these links to find other types of sources:
This website is the copyrighted work of Stéphane-D. Perreault and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Materials from external sources are acknowledged as such and used with permission. Use or adaptation of the material on this website without author's permission and attribution constitutes a violation of this license. Commercial use prohibited.
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