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.
Finding Academic Articles
These are general databases that are useful for lower-division research papers. They contain articles in scholarly journals, newspapers, and popular publications.
If you want to look for others, go to this page to browse databases by subject. 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.
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is your link to full-text! Note that some sources only index journal articles—they don't actually have the full text. Use the gold UC-eLinks button to find the full text or search for the journal title in the UCLA Library Catalog.
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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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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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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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CQ Press Library This link opens in a new window
Reference resource for research in American government, politics, legislation, history, public policy, and current affairs. UCLA Library has selected access that includes CQ Almanac, CQ Researcher Plus Archive, and CQ Magazine (For CQ Press e-books, see Sage Knowledge).
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Chicano Database This link opens in a new windowBibliographic materials on Mexican-American topics 1967 to the present. Scope expanded in 1992 to include the broader Latinx experience, including Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans, and Central American immigrants. Includes the Spanish Speaking Mental Health Database.
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Black Studies Center This link opens in a new windowHistorical and current material for researching the past, present and future of African-Americans, the wider African Diaspora, and Africa itself. It is comprised of several cross-searchable component databases, including International Index to Black Periodicals, Black Literature Index and Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience (interdisciplinary essays written by leading scholars on the Black Experience).
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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.
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Google ScholarGoogle Scholar is another option to find scholarly articles. Click on the UC-eLinks link opposite your search results to access the content full-text through the library. If you don't see UC-eLinks in your results, click on Settings, then Library Links and select University of California, Los Angeles as your institution. Then input your search terms. You can limit the date range on the left to get fewer, more recent results.
Article Search Tips
This quick introduction to searching for academic journal articles in databases will help you make your searches more efficient and more effective:
Avoiding plagiarism can be more tricky than it seems at first glance. Complete this activity to learn strategies for avoiding plagiarism.
Few of us can recall every detail and argument from academic articles - they’re packed with so much information! It’s best to create reading strategies that help you focus on comprehending the most essential elements of an academic article. Breaking Down Academic Articles is a webcomic tutorial that walks you through the most important aspects of an academic article, to help you prepare for class discussion on the article(s) or take away essential information from the article to support future research.
Note: a transcript for each slide can be located at the bottom of each slide. Click the button to preview transcript of slide for description of art in each panel and the script of tutorial guide.
Looking for an efficient way to get a research overview on a topic? A review article is a great place to start.
A review article provides an analysis of the state of research on a set of related research questions. Review articles often: summarize key research findings, reference must-read articles, describe current areas of agreement as well as controversies and debates, point out gaps in knowledge and unanswered questions, suggest directions for future research.
Check out this quick overview of finding review articles in Web of Science, PubMed, Google Scholar, and more.
The Library's online subscription resources can always be accessed from computers and wireless networks on campus. However, off-campus access is restricted to current UCLA, students, faculty, and staff who have set up their computer using one of the following methods.
VPN on Mac with Natalie
"I chose VPN for my mac because I need to be able to access the full text of articles on different browsers." - Natalie, Environmental ScienceDownload a UCLA VPN
VPN on Windows with Michael
"I chose VPN because I like the security it provides and the control it gives me as a user to manually enable or disable it when I'm browsing online." - Michael, Public AffairsDownload a UCLA VPN
Additional Platforms
For more information:
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UCLA OnLine Proxy ServerA simple browser setting which will automatically divert you to a UCLA logon page when you first access a restricted site.
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Virtual Private Networking (VPN)A program you can download and install, or use the built-in version on many computers or mobile devices. VPN software must be logged on manually before you access a restricted site, but works for all programs on your computer.
Finding Full Text
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.