Humanities: Arts, Film & Literature: Finding 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.

For more on the different types of periodicals:

Popular Magazines vs. Trade Magazines vs. Scholarly Journals chart from Colorado State University Libraries

If our Library does not have an article you are looking for, we can get a copy from another Library.

Learn more about our Interlibrary Loan services.

Interlibrary Loan (ILL) is a FREE service for all currently enrolled students, faculty and staff.
Online ILL Request form

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
  • Format or 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", "fast casual"

Truncation & Wildcards *  
The asterisk ('*') matches non-space characters, starting at the specified position in the word. For example, "farm*" will match "farm", "farmer", "farmed", "farming", "farmworker", "farmhouse", etc.

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

• stocks AND sauces {search results must have both terms}
• stocks OR sauces {must have at least one of the terms}
• stocks NOT sauces {must have first term and must not include second term}
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• Use the Database Tools to Email, Save & Cite articles.