This document offers general tips to aid your online search for peer-reviewed academic articles, and explains in detail how to use the database EBSCOhost. I originally wrote this page for my students at UWEC; it may need further revision for my students at Seton Hill. 

1. General Tips
2. Using EBSCOhost

1. General Tips

To find the best academic sources for your paper...

1. Close this web page.
2. Walk to the library.
3. Talk to a reference librarian.

You'll save yourself time and aggravation, and you will get better results.

Maybe you can't get to a library just now. I can still try to help.

Google is a great search engine, but most academic journals don't post their articles for free online, which means that Google will never find them. You'll have to access a database via your local library.

Libraries buy subscriptions to databases which pay journals for the rights to index their articles. Most libraries let patrons access these databases through their websites. Fortunately, almost all libraries provide free online access to these databases. Unfortunately, these databases aren't as easy to use as Google, and each one is different from the other.

No matter what database you use, here is a general strategy you can follow to help you find good academic sources.

1. Start at your library's home page.
2. Don't go to the catalog -- that's mostly for books and other records that are physically located at the library.
3. Look for a link to "periodicals" or "databases". (You may need to use the site search engine.)
4. Select an appropriate database. (If your instructor hasn't suggested one, you might look for EBSCOhost.)
5. Look for a checkbox that says "peer-reviewed" or "juried publications". Check that box to restrict your search to credible publications.
6. Try a single keyword search to see what comes up; or, if you have already used Google to find a recent newspaper or magazine article in which a reporter interviews a researcher, type in the researcher's name to see what he or she has published recently.
7. You may not find a whole article that has been written on your subject.

Note: Students are often frustrated by the lack of articles on cutting edge subjects that interest them.

Academic studies often take months or years to write and publish -- so it may be a while before researchers publish articles on Operation Iraqi Freedom or the spread of Sars.

If you can't find academic articles on how instant messaging affects teen romance or how file-sharing is affecting the music culture, you might need to go back in time and look for historical similarities, such as how telephones affected teen romance in the 50s and 60s, or how the use of recorded music on the radio affected professional musicians in the 20s and 30s.

8. If you get too many "hits", try adding additional, more specific terms. (If you get 5000 hits for "transportation safety", try "automobile safety" or "alcohol automobile" or "seat belts").
9. If you get too few tips, try using synonyms; or, try using more general terms. (For instance, if you find nothing under "car safety", try "automibile safety". If you find nothing under "Napster", try "intellectual property" or "music copyright" or "copyright law" or just "copyright".) When you do find some good sources, try new searches using the subject headings under which that article is filed.
10. Any database will have a "help" button that describes how to use operators like OR and NOT, how to restrict your search to a particular language or date range, etc.

Warning: Even if you do click the box to restrict searches to credible publications, the database may return an editorial or a letter to the editor that was published in an academic publication.

If the article is very short (one or two pages long) and does not include a works cited list or bibliography at the end, then you haven't found a peer-reviewed academic source.

 

by Dennis G. Jerz
28 Dec 1999 -- first posted
12 Mar 2002 -- modified
01 May 2003 -- general tips section added

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Journalism vs. Academic Research

Some databases include results from newspapers and magazines -- which do not publish original, peer-reviewed scholarship. While a news article is useful for current events, reporters often cite published reports or interview professors. Most college instructors will expect you to look up the original study the reporter is summarizing, or the find original scholarship published by the professor being interviewed.