Insurance Studies Research: Finding Journal Articles

1. To find articles on a specific topic, use one of the Research Databases available from University Libraries homepage. 
2. If you are unsure of which database(s) to use or where to begin, a general interest or multidisciplinary database such as Academic Search Complete is a good resource to start with.
3. Consult the subject list of databases to identify the subject that best fits your topic. For your insurance studies courses, you might find databases listed in the various Business, General Interest, and Law subject guides to be helpful.

Searching the research databases effectively may require new, specialized search skills.   

Need help? Try one of these tutorials:

Basic Search Strategies

In this tutorial learn how to right size your paper topic, chose effective keywords, and combine those terms for efficient search strategies.

Discovery@KentState Tutorial #3: Finding the Full Text of Articles

In this tutorial learn how to find the full text of articles in the library's databases. 

Journal articles are important sources of current information for college-level research. Many assignments will require you to use academic/research/scholarly articles that are written by researchers, experts, and scholars 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 How to Read 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. 

Research databases are online tools (indexes) you can use to search for academic and scholarly articles on a specific topic.  They include various information sources, including articles published in journals, magazines, and newspapers.  Many provide full-text of the articles.  You can read, download, print, or e-mail articles directly from the computer. 

Some of the databases that may be most helpful to you when doing research in this course are discussed further on the next page.

To find out whether full-text copies are available online, look for the HTML or PDF full-text links or use the Find It! link. 

The FindIt! link also provides information about library print holdings and includes a link for requesting copies of articles not available online.

Faculty expect students to use scholarly articles for research. 

This tutorial from the University of Tennessee at Chatanooga's Library explains what to look for: