Scholarly v. Popular
-
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.
Article Databases
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.)
class="box-in-box highlight"> 
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.
Sample search strategies are given for the topic you might be searching:
-
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.
-
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.
-
America: History & Life This link opens in a new windowHistorical coverage of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. Indexes articles from over 1,700 history journals published worldwide since 1964.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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].
-
Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Full text of current issues (from about 1990) of scholarly journals published by university presses, chiefly in the arts, humanities and social sciences. Browsable by discipline and full-text searchable across all disciplines. UCLA has access to Muse e-books published from 2017-present, plus a selected number of other e-book titles.
-
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global This link opens in a new windowIndex to doctoral dissertations from 1637 to the present, with abstracts since 1980. A number of master's theses are also indexed, with abstracts since 1988. Many are available for download in pdf format. UCLA has access to all full text dissertations in the database. Non-UCLA users may use Dissertations Express to purchase digital or print copies of individual dissertations.
-
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.
-
U.S. Major Dailies This link opens in a new window
Contains full-text dating back to the 1980s for five of the nation’s major newspapers, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and the Wall Street Journal.
-
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.
