Table of Contents
Define your Topic
1. Get an overview
- Encyclopedias provide an overview or definition of your topic.
- Bonus: Often includes lists of major articles.
2. Write down your topic as a statement or question
- e.g. How does income level affect health ?
3. Find key concepts
- Circle/highlight the important words or concepts in your topic statement.
- e.g. How does income level affect health ?
4. Find synonyms, related words and alternate spellings e.g.
- income ~ wealth
- poor ~ poverty
- health ~ healthy ~ illness
5. Note limits of your topic
- Focus: broad? narrow?
- Geographical: Canadian? U.S.? other?
- Time period: recent articles? older articles?
- Type of article :
- scholarly ( academic , refereed , peer reviewed )?
- popular (magazines)?
- news/current events
Select & Search an Article Database
1. Choose a database
- Start at the Library homepage
- Click the "Databases" tab
- Search for a database by subject area or name
2. Search an Article Database
- You can search most article databases using keywords (or your "key concepts" as described above).
- Remember to use the limits available to narrow your focus (publication date, geographical region etc.)
- Use the "One Good Article" strategy: find one good article, then use the "subject headings" or "descriptors" to find more on the topic.
Get Articles
Click the Get it! button to view all your options for how to get ahold of the article.
- If we have an online subscription to the journal, you should see an option to get the full-text of the article at the top of the menu.
- If we don't have an online subscription to the journal, your first option will be to search the Library Catalogue for the print version of the journal. Don't forget to check the Catalogue record to make sure that we have the volume/issue you need! Write down the call number and proceed to the periodicals collection at the appropriate library (the record will tell you what the journal is held at).