How to find journal articles | SFU Library (2024)

Library Search is the Library's default search engine on the Library home pageandincludes articles from many journals.

It is an excellent starting point for most searches.

You can find journal articles by mining the bibliographies of sources you already have, by searching for articles on your topic in the Library'sdatabases, or using search engines, including Google Scholar.

Using bibliographies

Bibliographies, also known as references, works cited or further reading, are lists of sources the author consulted, and are (almost always) found at the end of an academic book, chapter or article, including encyclopedia entries.

Once you have one good resource, check the citations in the bibliography and then use these citations to get more articles.

Using journal or article databases

Libraries subscribe to databases that provide access to thousands or millions of articles published in journals. You can search these by subject, keywords, author, or by citation if you already have this information.

Selecting a database

We subscribe to hundreds ofdatabases that cover different subject areas. Because the same search in different databases will give different results, a good search strategy includes using more than one.

Already have a journal title (or citation)?

You can also browse or search a specific journal title.

• Search for your journal title inLibrary Search (the default search box on most Library pages), or:
• To search for only journal titles, go to the A-Z Journals list (available at the top of everyLibrary Cataloguepage)
  • Tip: this strategy is especially useful for very common titleslike "Science."

Drilling down: Searching for a specific article or issue within a journal

Once you have found your journal, you can often search its contents, or "drill down" to find specific issues.

If you already know the article and journal title, along with author information, youcan also use your citation to get an article.

To improve your searching, use the tips below on defining the topic and identifying concepts, combining terms, truncation, and what to do if you have too few or too many results.

Defining the topic and identifying concepts

Before you start searching, you need to know what you are looking for. One way to define your topic is to write it out as a question you hope to answer in the paper or assignment. For example:

• What effect does water temperature have on sea urchins?
• Are left-handed people more intelligent?
• Are drug-users more likely than non-users to commit robbery?

Next, you need to identify the important concepts included in your question. For example:

• What effect does water temperature have on sea urchins?
• Are left-handed people more intelligent?
• Are drug-users more likely than non-users to commit robbery?

These important concepts provide the terms you will use in your search. Search for the specific words you use in your question plus synonyms, variant spellings and related words from your background reading.

Combining terms

The connectors AND and OR have special meanings in database searching; they allow you to combine terms in two different ways.

The term AND

• Retrieves records which contain ALL the search terms
• Use this to find two or more concepts in the same source
• E.g. water temperature AND sea urchins

The term OR

• Retrieves records which contain ANY of the search terms
• Use this to find synonyms, variant spellings or related terms
• E.g. robber OR theft OR burglary

Truncation or wildcard symbols

Truncation symbols allow you to search for all variations of a word at once, e.g. singular and plural, by searching for all the words beginning with the letters before the symbol.

• * is the most common truncation symbol
• E.g. robb* will retrieve robber, robbers, robbery, robberies, robbing, etc.
• $, ?, ! are other common truncation symbols

Phrase searching

Use quotation marks to search for a phrase rather than individual words, e.g. "water temperature" or"to be or not to be."

Too few sources found?

If you are not finding enough information, broaden your search to find more sources by using these techniques:

• Truncate your search term to find all variations of a term, e.g. instead of crime search for crim* (retrieves crime, crimes, criminal, criminals, etc.)
• Search for synonyms and variant spellings of your topic, e.g. work OR labor OR labour
• Search for broader or more general terms, e.g. instead of British Columbia search for Canada, or the even broader North America

Too many sources found?

If you are finding too much information, limit your search to find fewer sources by including another concept in your search. Often the second concept is what you want to know about the first concept, e.g. reading ANDinstructional methods.

If you still have too many results then include a third or even fourth concept in your search, e.g. reading AND instructional methods AND adult education.

Some sources of information are more reliable than others.Check your assignment. Your instructor may specify the types of sources you can use, and will expect you to evaluate the articles you have found to determine their relevance and authority.

• For most research papers, instructors will require students to use scholarly or academic articles.
  • See What is a Scholarly Journal? for definitions and descriptions of different types of publications and articles.
• However it may be appropriate to use publications other than academic journals, including blog posts by scholars and reports by associations and government agencies. SeeEvaluating Resources for more citeria for evaluating sources generally.

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