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CA 500: Foundations of Graduate Study in Communication: Finding Articles

This guide was designed to support CA 500 at USA.

How to Find Articles

When you research a topic, you are looking for resources that provide more information and context on your topic. There are two major ways to find articles:

  1. Through searching databases and Google Scholar.
  2. Through citation mining.

A database is a collection of journal articles (and usually other items) that you can search all at once. Databases are usually searched using keywords or terms.

How to Search a Database

A database is searched by creating a search query. A search query is the combination of search terms, filters, and code that you type or select before clicking the search button.

  • Search terms are the words or phrases you want the search feature to look for.
    • Different databases search different parts of the text. Some databases, like JSTOR or newspaper collections, only do a full-text search. Their search features will only pull items that have those phrases in the actual text.
    • Other databases, like Academic Search complete, will search the actual text and the description of the text.
    • Many databases have multiple textboxes where you can enter multiple search terms at once. You do not need to put a term in every textbox.
  • Filters are selections built into the search feature. You can choose different filters to narrow down your results. Common filters are by publication date or by language.
  • Code includes any special terms or punctuation to add to your search. Some search features might not understand every code.
    • ? or * are commonly use to truncate your searches. This means that a search for: read* will really search for any word that starts with read. The articles you get shown might contain the words "read," "readers," or "readmit".

This is an example of a search in Academic Search Complete:

Screenshot of Academic Search Complete search function. Two terms are entered, "cooking shows" and "health behavior."

This is an example of a search in JSTOR:

Screenshot of a search query in JSTOR. The search terms are "Native American" and "Taxes."

Google Scholar

You can use Google Scholar to find versions of articles that you can access for free. Google Scholar can tell you in the search results if you have access to an article through USA Libraries or if a free version of the article has been uploaded elsewhere to the internet.

Whenever you use Google Scholar, make sure to be logged into your JagMail account on that browser. Google Scholar will then understand that you have access to USA Libraries. 

In Google Scholar, you can search by author, article title, or subject. 

1. Search Google Scholar. Find an article in which you are interested.

Screenshot of Google Scholar search result

2. Select the "Full-Text@USA" option below the article you want to read. You might need to click on the arrows to show this option. You may also see a PDF option to the side of the article's search result.

3. If you do not have the "Full-Text@USA" option, please make sure you are signed into your JagMail email on your browser. If you are signed into your JagMail, and you do not have a PDF option or a "Full-Text@USA" option, then you do not have access to that article through Google Scholar. You can still try to request access to the article through Interlibrary Loan.