How to Find Articles
Steps:
- Select an index
- Search for topic
- Interpret the Information in the Index
- Determine journal available through ASU Libraries
- Locate the Journal
Step 1: Select an Index
An index contains "references" or "bibliographic citations" to journal articles. Some of them also contain the full text of the article, or at least links to the full text online.
Indexes are arranged by subject on the "Find Articles" page, and also may be available through the various subject guides prepared by the librarians.
Step 2: Search for the Topic
2A. Define your search. Write out the topic in a complete sentence.
Example: I'm looking for information on educating the public about AIDS.
2B. Break down the topic into concepts.
Example:
Concept #1: AIDS
Concept #2: education
2C. List synonyms or related terms for each concept.
Example:
Concept #1: AIDS; synonyms: acquired immunodeficiency syndrome
Concept #2: education; synonyms: awareness, prevention
2D. Do your search, using the appropriate Boolean operators, truncation symbols and parentheses.
The connector OR is used between synonyms.
The connector AND is used between concepts.
A truncation symbol (usually *) is used to retrieve all words that begin with that stem.
Parentheses are used to group synonyms for a concept.
Example:
(AIDS or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) and (educat* or awareness or prevent*)
2E. Examine the citations found by your search and look at the subject heading fields of useful articles.
This will help you identify the best subject headings or other terminology that should also be searched. Most databases list the subject headings for each record in the "descriptor" field (DE). You may find more useful articles by doing a new search using the identified subject headings.
Step 3: Interpret the Information in the Index
Article citations generally contains the following information:
- author(s)
- title of the article
- title of the journal (some indexes use abbreviations)
- volume number (some journals do not use volume numbers)
- issue number (some journals do not number individual issues)
- pages on which the article is located
- date of the journal
- summary or abstract of the article may also be present
- in some databases the full text of the article might be included
Copy down the complete bibliographic citation for each useful article.
Step 4: Determine if journal is available at ASU Libraries:
4A. If the journal title is abbreviated, get the full title of the journal.
There are several ways that full journal titles may be obtained:
4B. Use Find - Journals to search for title of journal online and/or in print
4E. If ASU does not own a journal and you know the specific article you need, you may fill out an Interlibrary Loan Form. The libraries will obtain a copy of the article for you three to seven days.
Step 5: Locate the Journal
If the journal is not available online, then you will need to locate it in one of the physical libraries.
Note: Each of the ASU libraries has a seperate shelving area for current (usually less than a year old) journals and bound (usually more than a year old) journals. Binding periods for journals vary -- if the bound journals for your title do not go up to the issue you need, try looking in the current journals.
Can't find a journal on the shelf? Look to see if the journal is misshelved, in the sorting area, or by the photocopiers. If you still can't find the journal, ask a librarian for help.
