To find journal articles

There are two steps to finding journal articles:

1. Find a citation to an article: the title (and author) of an article along with which issue of which journal it was published in
2. Find a copy of the issue of the journal

To find a citation to an article:     

From the library's list of Indexes & Databases, select an index appropriate for the topic. You can select from the full list (the "Info" buttons outline what topics are covered in each) or "Choose a Department" to see which indexes are most likely to be relevant to each field. Here are a few good general indexes that are usually good places to start:

• Expanded Academic - Articles, including many in full text, from both scholarly and general interest periodicals in the social sciences, arts and humanities, education, science and technology, and current events.
• Lexis-Nexis - Full text articles from many newspapers, magazines, trade journals, transcripts, and other sources on general news, business, political, legal, and medical subjects.
• WilsonWeb - A set of indexes covering academic sources in social sciences, humanities, and arts, as well as coverage of nonacademic sources in Readers Guide. Includes many full text articles since the mid 1980s, and index coverage as far back as 1890.

Remember to use the Help screens for tips searching different online indexes. The general principles of searching online databases are similar for all, but each has different ways of implementing those general principles and different advanced searching techniques and special features to modify and specify your search. Also, standardized subject headings (in those indexes which use subject headings) are often different in different indexes.

Subject Research Guide are available for each department or major program at Wesleyan. Along with reference works, web sites, and other resources, each guide lists the library's indexes and databases which are most likely to be of use to researchers in the field. Keep in mind, though, that other indexes may also be helpful, especially for interdisciplinary research.

Once you find one a few books, articles, and other sources, check their bibliographies for more articles as well as other sources. Those sources, of course, will be older than the article or book itself, so also note author names and search for more recent publications by those authors. In addition, you can search a citation index (Arts and Humanities Citation Index, Science Citation Index, or Social Science Citation Index, all listed on the library's Indexes & Databases page) for the article to see if it has been cited by other articles since it has been published.

To find a copy of the issue of the journal:

Most of the library's have the SFX software to check Wesleyan library holdings. When you find a citation to an article you want, there will be an "SFX" button or a link to "check Wesleyan holdings." Click the button or the link for:

• a link to an online version of the article, if available
• a link to search the Wesleyan Library Catalog if we have a print subscription
• a link to make an interlibrary loan request if we do not have a subscription to the journal.

For indexes without SFX or for article citations found in bibliographies or elsewhere, search in the Journal Locator for the title of the journal the article was published in to see whether and where we have a subscription to the journal, and what volumes/issues of the journal are available.

• A "Connect" button means we have a direct online subscription to the journal; click to access the journal, then browse or search for the article.
• A button with the name of one of the library's online databases means the journal is available in that database; click to access the database, then search for the article.
• A "CTW" button means we have a print subscription to the journal; click to access the record for the journal in the Wesleyan Library Catalog to see which issues we have and where they are shelved. 

For more details on finding journal articles, see the guide to Locating Journal Articles.