How To Find Articles

Welcome to Tisch Talks, Tisch Library’s ongoing audio magazine series. You’re listening to the seventh installment of the series, where we will try to answer the age-old question: how to find articles.

When a patron calls or comes to the reference desk, or IMs us to ask this question, we have to respond with a question. “Do you have a particular article in mind that you need?” If the answer is yes, we next ask, “do you have the citation (title of the periodical, title of the article, volume, pages, dates, etc.) for the article?” If the answer is yes again, we guide the patron to search the catalog by journal title to see if any of the Tufts libraries own the periodical.

Backing up a bit, when the patron answers no when we ask “Do you have a particular article in mind that you need,” we go through a different series of questions. We’ll then ask what topic the patron is interested in. Knowing the answer to this question, we can guide her or him to any number of good starting points, such as the database finder or the Research Guides by Subject. Let’s take a look at both starting points so you’ll know which one to choose in the future. If you’d like to follow along, pause your player while you go to the Tisch Library homepage: www.library.tufts.edu/tisch. We’ll start with the database finder. From the homepage, select databases and articles, on the left side under searching. Exploring the databases finder, you’ll notice it’s made up of three parts: the search/browse box, the browse all subjects list below the box and the getting started section on the right side.

The search/browse box serves several functions. In the top portion of the box, if you know the name of a database (for example making of the modern world), you can type any portion of the title in the search box and you’ll see a list of results that matches your search.

You can also search by the type of reference tool you’re looking for, for example almanacs, encyclopedias, statistics, by using the dropdown menu.

In the bottom portion of the box you can browse the entire database finder in alphabetical order. If you want to see all the databases that begin with the letter L, just click that letter.

The next section of the database finder is the browse all subjects section. As an example select Environmental Sciences. Your results list displays a box with several options in it. You see keywords that you can click on to broaden or narrow your search and you also see a drop down menu that you can use to limit the current set of results by format, such as CD ROMs or primary sources. If you are interested in finding articles on the economic impacts of organic cattle farming, you might limit to indexes and abstracts, where articles are most likely to appear. Moving down the list, you begin to see all the databases that have environmental sciences as their subject. For the topic having to do with cattle farming, you’ll see several choices: Agricultural & Environmental Biotechnology Abstracts and CAB Abstracts are two subject-specific databases to check. Scopus and Web of Science, further down the list, are both good interdisciplinary starting points for this topic.

The far right area of the database finder, Getting Started, provides direct links to some of our most often used databases. Expanded Academic ASAP is a great starting point to find articles on organic cattle farming, the current political situation worldwide, obesity in children, reviews of films and books, and much more. Note that the source material in EA ASAP is split between academic and popular sources. This is an important factor to keep in mind when looking for articles. The majority of databases cover academic sources, but some, like ABI-Inform, Ethnic NewsWatch and Lexis Nexis are designed to index popular magazines and newspapers.

Lexis Nexis is a great source to search when you want to see what newspapers worldwide, have to say about your topic. Great for comparing how the American press, and say, the French press interpret the same news event. It also indexes business, legal, medical, statistical, congressional and environmental sources.

Web of Knowledge is another interdisciplinary starting point, though you can see from its homepage that it emphasizes sciences, with titles such as BIOSIS previews, essential science indicators and Medline. Focus in on the titles listed under the Web of Science heading and you’ll see arts and humanities, sciences, and social sciences citation indexes. All excellent starting points for finding academic articles on a huge variety of topics.

The last title on the list, RefWorks, is not a starting point for article searching. It’s the database you’ll use to save the citations you find in your searches and store them in an organized method. It allows you to create bibliographies of your citations. For more information about RefWorks, give us a call or stop by the reference desk.

I mentioned before that you can also use the Research Guides by Subject to identify a starting point on your search for articles. If you’d like to follow along, go to http://www.library.tufts.edu/tisch/subject/index.htm. Pause your player while you go there. Bibliographers and reference librarians continually develop and update these guides. Each one lists a variety of types of resources in the general area. Click on the classics guide, on the left side, and you’ll see its table of contents. Each guide provides a list of resources for facts and background, books, articles (the one that you want!), primary sources and websites, oh, and of course, the most important link, your librarians! The link to articles will give you a list of article databases specific to classics. After reading the descriptions of each title, you’ll know which will be a good starting point for your topic.

Do you feel like you have a better understanding of how to find articles in the Tisch library. We certainly hope so, but of course, as always, don’t hesitate to be in touch with the reference desk in person, by phone (617 627 3460), via email (tischref@tufts.edu) or IM us by adding TischLibrarian to your contacts.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this installment of Tisch Talks. We invite your questions at any time. Don’t hesitate to be in touch!

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