Student Resources: Finding Articles

Kent State University has access to thousands of databases that contain articles from academic journals on a wide variety of topics, subjects and disciplines. These databases give ready access to full-text of the majority of articles.

1. To find articles on a specific topic, use one of the Research Databases available from the  Academic Learning Commons/Library webpage. Use the Alphabetic List of Databases or the Subject Specific List of Databases. 
2. Or, begin with a general-interest or multidisciplinary database such as Academic Search Complete if you don't know where to start. Select the Academic Search tab below this page for more information. 

Searching the Research Databases effectively may require new, specialized search skills.   

Need help?  Try one of these tutorials:

Research Databases Part 1: Searching for Articles by Topic
Covers accessing research databases (specifically Academic Search Complete [ASC]), searching ASC by keyword, limiting searches, reviewing Boolean connectors and truncation and examining search results.

Research Databases Part 2: Locating Full Text Journal Articles
Covers accessing full text in ASC, using “Find A Copy” to find full text, storing and emailing search results and full text and options for Interlibrary Loan.

Articles are important sources of current information for college level research. Many assignments will require you to use articles that are written by researchers and experts for others in their field and that include references and lists of works cited. 

It is important that you understand the differences between scholarly journals and popular magazines so that you can use the appropriate sources and succeed with your assignments.  To learn more, watch the What are Scholarly Articles? video to the right. .

The Effective Searching box to the left includes links to two tutorials that will help you learn how to use the Library's research databases to find the articles you need. 

Faculty expect students to use scholarly articles for research. 

When you are looking for Scholarly, Academic or Peer-Reviewed articles it may be difficult to determine if what you are looking at meets the criteria your professor is wanting.

Most of the databases in our system have a "Limiter" where you can check a box that will automatically limit your search to Scholarly, Academic or Peer-Reviewed journals. All three of these terms are used interchangeably depending on the database. Once you have used the limiter you will not need to ask yourself or "guess" at the quality of the information you have received.