Robert E. Kennedy Library
Article Tips
Do you have the citation?
- If you already have a citation for an article, and want to find the full text, visit our Find an article by citation page.
- If you have a citation that is incomplete, or one that you suspect contains an error, enter some of the information you have into Google Scholar. This often brings up a complete and/or correct citation.
1. Save yourself time — choose the right database
2. Take advantage of the database features
Once you are searching in the right database(s), take advantage of the features.
- Use Advanced Search Screens
- Run your search terms as TITLE as well as KEYWORD
- * Add an asterisk to your search terms. Biolog* will give you hits for biology, biological, biologic, etc.
- Once you find an article that seems good, explore the hyperlinked SUBJECT terms
- When you find one really good article, see what articles it cites, and search for those as well
3. Be flexible with the language of your search-terms
People writing about a topic might be using different terms than you: as you search, try to discover the terms they are using to find more articles on your topic.
4. Don't limit your search to full-text only
Often, the full-text is available in another database. If you don't see a link stating full-text, PDF or HTML, click FIND IT, and a crawler will scout for the full-text in another Library database, and bring it to your screen if it is available.
5. Many databases provide results with more than just articles
This includes books, chapters, and dissertations. In some databases you can limit your results to just articles, but in all cases you must pay attention to the elements of the citation to be sure it is an article. Remember: article citations have an article title, a journal title, and usually a volume and an issue number.