How do I Find Scholarly Journal Articles?
Examples: Annals of Microbiology, Harvard Business Review, American Philosophical Quarterly, Journal of Education.
For more on distinguishing scholarly from popular articles, see "Is This a Scholarly Periodical?"
Step 1. Search for Articles On Your Topic
First find citations by searching databases on your topic. For example,
- for Psychology use PsychInfo,
- for Education use ERIC,
- for Business use ABI Inform,
- for English literary criticism use MLA Bibliography and Literature Online,
- for American History use America History and Life,
- for Biology use Biological Sciences Database, etc.
Now search the database by keyword or by subject (example: teenagers and smoking).
Evaluate your citations. Look for citations that seem to be from scholarly journals instead of dissertations or book chapters. Some databases permit you to limit your search to these journals.
Step 2. Find a Copy of the Article
If you are searching a fulltext database the entire article may be available for download, email, or print out. If so, click on the link for the article.
Not all articles are available as fulltext through the web, however. Many articles must or can only be found in printed journals that the library owns.
See if TCNJ can access the journal, magazine, newspaper title.
If the library does not own a copy of the journal, you can submit an Interlibrary Loan Request.
Step 3. Read, Download, Photocopy, Email, or Print Out the Article
For fulltext from the web, read, download, email, or print the article. For print on paper in the periodical stacks read or photocopy the article. Be sure to cite the article if you use it in your paper.
