African Cuisines Concentration: Finding Articles

Searching is a process, you will try one search, evaluate your results, modify your strategy and try again.

Start with simple keyword searching

Use the Database Options to Refine or Limit and narrow your search

LIMITS include;

• Scholarly & Peer Review
• Full-Text
• Date of Publication
• Document Type e.g. article, book review, letter to editor

Evaluate an article by reading the Abstract or summary.

Review your results to identify concepts & terminology that can help improve your search results.

Look at Subject Headings & Descriptors, standard vocabulary terms that describe the contents of articles

Use the Advanced Search screen to mix and match keywords and subjects and more.

Advanced Search Tips

Phrase Searches    
Search for complete phrases by enclosing them in quotation marks. Words enclosed in double quotes will appear together in all results exactly as typed, e.g. "culinary science"

Truncation & Wildcards *  
The asterisk ('*') matches non-space characters, starting at the specified position in the word. For example, "inter*" will match "internal","internet",  "international". 

Boolean Operators
Use AND or OR to specify multiple words in any field, any order. Use AND NOT to exclude words.

• stocks AND bonds {search results must have both terms}
• stocks OR bonds {must have at least one of the terms}
• stocks NOT bonds {must have first term and not include second term}

Use the Database Tools to Email, Save & Cite articles.

A scholarly journal publishes authoritative research articles by academics or experts in a discipline.
The articles often undergo peer-review, that is they are evaluated by other experts before publication.

• How to Read a Scholarly Article
• How to Evaluate a Scholarly Article

For more on the different types of periodicals see this chart:

Scholarly Journals  v. Popular Magazines v. Trade Journals

1. Select Peer-Reviewed or Scholarly when you search

Omnivore ArticleSearch, and most databases, have a button to check when you search or limit/filter your search results.
Omnivore Articles screenshots 

2. Confirm that it is a Research Article

Limiting your search results to articles published in peer reviewed scholarly journals is the first step. 
Scholarly Journals include other types of documents, such as essays, literature reviews, book reviews, commentary, letters to the editor, announcements, etc. So...

How do I know if it is a research article? 

A research article reports the original work of a scholar and will present evidence and conclusions.

Read the Abstract (summary of the article) or Introduction (first paragraph)  to identify the type of article and the topics covered. 

A research article must have:

• a named Author
• a Bibliography or References
• PDF format available
• more than a few pages

Interlibrary Loan (ILL) is a free service for all currently enrolled CIA students, faculty and staff.

We will email the digital copy (pdf) of the article to you. It may take around 1 week to receive an article.

How to Request an Item thru ILL in Omnivore:

• Search in Omnivore for a title, author, or topic
• Click on Title of item
• Click button Request Item through Interlibrary Loan
• Enter your name, CIA email and date needed

If you do not find the item in Omnivore, you can use the Online ILL Request forms

Learn more about our Interlibrary Loan services.