Scholarly v. Popular
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Anatomy of a Scholarly ArticleInteractive display of the key elements of a scholarly journal article.
- Here is a short video explaining PEER REVIEW.
Searching for Articles in Journals
There are several ways to search for journal articles. You can start with UC Library Search, using the Articles, Books and more option, which searches all the databases the UCLA Library subscribes to. Or you can go to a specific database, such as APA PsycINFO, Academic Search Complete, PubMed, etc.
In either case, start with a keyword search using words relevant to your topic. When you see some articles that look interesting, click on the title to see the complete citation. If there are subject terms or descriptors, click on those that seem related to your topic to get other articles on the subject.
Databases that Index Journal Articles
This is a very select list of available article databases. If you want to look for others, go to this page and click through to your discipline (political science, sociology, history, etc.). Here you will find a selection of the most useful databases for each discipline listed. In all of these databases you might start with a search strategy like this: "sexual violence" and "public health" which will get you lots of results. You can narrow the results with more terms or others you might see in the result list.
is your link to full-text! Note that some sources only index journal articles—they don't actually have the full text.
- Use the button to find the full text or search for the journal title in the UCLA Library Catalog.
- Request the article through interlibrary loan if UCLA does not own the full text.
For more tips, see our guide on database searching.
EBSCO Databases
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CINAHL Complete This link opens in a new windowFull text for more than 1,300 English-language nursing and allied health journals and publications back to 1937. Includes access to health care books, nursing dissertations, selected conference proceedings, standards of practice, educational software, audiovisuals and book chapters, Evidence-Based Care Sheets, legal cases, clinical innovations, critical paths, drug records, research instruments and clinical trials.
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Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new windowA multidisciplinary database that indexes over 10,000 publications, with the complete text of over 5,500 periodicals, including a mix of peer-reviewed journals, magazines, and newspapers.
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Family & Society Studies Worldwide This link opens in a new windowIndexes articles, books, conference papers, and reports in the fields of family science, human ecology, human development, and social welfare. Covers research, policy, and practice literature from 1970 to the present.
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Women's Studies International This link opens in a new window
Provides access to citations for a wide range of topics in the study of women and gender, 1972-present.
ProQuest Databases
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APA PsycInfo This link opens in a new windowAbstracts and citations to journal articles, books, book chapters, conference proceedings, and dissertations relevant to students, researchers, and professionals working in the psychological, social, behavioral, and health sciences.
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Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Indexes the international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences from 1,800+ serials publications; also provides abstracts of books, book chapters, dissertations, and conference papers. Coverage from 1952-present.
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Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window
Complete text of articles from 1959 to the present from publications of the ethnic, minority, and native press. Covers news, culture, and history, and is searchable in both English and Spanish.
Other Vendors
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Web of Science This link opens in a new window
A multidisciplinary database, with searchable author abstracts, covering the journal literature of most disciplines. Indexes major journals with all cited references captured. Combines the following citation databases: Science Citation Index Expanded; Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI); Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI); Conference Proceedings Citation Index.
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Access World News — Historical and Current This link opens in a new windowFull-text articles from over 4,756 US and international blogs, journals, newspapers, newswires, videos, and web sources. Date coverage varies with individual newspapers. Formerly called America's Newspapers or NewsBank.
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JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Full text back issues of core scholarly journals, browsable and searchable across multiple disciplines. Coverage starts with first issue, with moving wall for most recent 3-5 years. UCLA has access to selected JSTOR e-books only. JSTOR also includes primary source collections, including images from Artstor.
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Los Angeles Times This link opens in a new window
Full text (no ads or pictures) from 1985 to the present. For access to older issues, see ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Los Angeles Times [1881-1995].
Los Angeles Public Library
Not all articles are available in databases that UCLA subscribes to. The Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL) has over 250 databases available to anyone with an LAPL library card. You can get an ECARD online-no need to go to a library.
The most useful database to try searching is Research Library (ProQuest), which UCLA does not subscribe to. It has some online journals not at UCLA.