LibGuides at USA: HY 104: History of Asian Civilization II: Finding Articles

Finding Articles

Journal articles are great research material. Academic articles are published in academic journals after a peer-review process. The articles should all be written by experts. The peer-review process is when other experts read an article before publication. Those experts check for research quality and rigor, and the article usually goes through revisions before publication.

You can find articles online in two major ways:

You can use academic databases that the Library pays to be able to access. A database is a collection of many journals. You can search all the journals at once.
You can search Google Scholar. Google Scholar also searches many journals at once. It can be more difficult to tell if you can access the full text of an article through Google Scholar.

Recommended Databases

JSTOR This link opens in a new window
A collection of full-text journals in which the latest issues are at least 3 to 5 years old, but the holdings often extend back many years. The journals may be searched separately or by discipline.
Project MUSE - Premium Collection This link opens in a new window
A collection of full-text journals which provides current coverage of journals, including many of the titles in JSTOR.
Periodicals Archive Online This link opens in a new window
Backfiles for periodicals in the humanities and social sciences.
Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 8,500 full-text periodicals, including more than 7,300 peer-reviewed journals. In addition to full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for more than 12,500 journals and a total of more than 13,200 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc.
SAGE Journals Online This link opens in a new window
Full-text available for 574 journals.
Oxford Journals Online This link opens in a new window
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Database of news, business and legal research. For educational activities only.
ProQuest US Newsstream This link opens in a new window
An index to over 500 newspapers, with 350 available in full text. Coverage for some titles goes back to the 1980s.

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.

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.