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:
- UCLA OnLine Proxy ServerA simple browser setting which will automatically divert you to a UCLA logon page when you first access a restricted site.
- 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.
Databases and Example Article Searches
Example searches for articles in UC Library Search:
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
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A 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. - Web of Science This link opens in a new window
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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.
- GreenFILE This link opens in a new window
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Collection of scholarly, government, and general-interest titles which include content on the environmental effects of individuals, corporations, and local/national governments and what can be done on each level to minimize negative impact. Topics: global warming, green building, ecology, pollution, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, recycling. The database provides indexing and abstracts for more than 384,000 records, as well as Open Access full text for more than 4,700 records. - APA PsycInfo This link opens in a new window
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Abstracts 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.
- ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global This link opens in a new window
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Index 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. - AGRICOLA (AGRICultural OnLine Access) This link opens in a new windowCreated by the National Agricultural Library and its cooperators, AGRICOLA covers materials in all formats, including printed works from the 15th century. The records describe publications and resources encompassing all aspects of agriculture and allied disciplines.
- CAB Abstracts This link opens in a new window
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Provides coverage of the applied life sciences including: agriculture, environment, veterinary sciences, applied economics, food science and nutrition. - PAIS Index This link opens in a new window
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International coverage of articles, books, conference proceedings, and government documents on social and political policy, political science, public administration, current affairs, and related topics from 1972 to the present. Includes PAIS Archive, which covers 1915 to 1976.
Example searches in PAIS International:
- Subject: Food - searches for articles where "Food" is the subject.
- Subject: Food AND Keyword: Impact - searches for articles with "Food" as the main subject and the keyword "Impact" in the article.
- PubMed This link opens in a new window
Citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites. Also searches NCBI's integrated molecular biology databases, including nucleotide sequences, protein sequences, 3-D protein structure data, population study data sets, and assemblies of complete genomes in an integrated system. Note: This link uses a special address which turns on Get it at UC. Without that, PubMed does not link to UCLA's online subscriptions.
Example Searches in PubMed:
- EMBASE This link opens in a new window
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Embase provides essential biomedical evidence from evidence-based content, along with deep biomedical indexing and search forms to assist in building search strategies. - Agricultural & Environmental Science Database This link opens in a new window
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Coverage of the agricultural and environmental sciences, including scholarly journals, trade and industry journals, magazines, technical reports, conference proceedings, and government publications. Includes the AGRICOLA, TOXLINE, Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management, Ecology Abstracts, and Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) databases. Can also be searched as part of the Natural Science Collection.
Example Searches in Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management:
- Subject: Food Studies - searches for articles that have "Food Studies" as their main subject.
- Subject: Food Studies AND Keyword: Urban Food Deserts - searches for articles where the subject is "Food Studies" and contains the keywords "Urban Food Deserts".
- ScienceDirect This link opens in a new window
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Articles and e-books in the sciences, technology, medicine, and social sciences. UCLA subscribes to a subset of this collection.
- America: History & Life This link opens in a new window
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Historical coverage of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. Indexes articles from over 1,700 history journals published worldwide since 1964. - JSTOR This link opens in a new window
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Full text of core scholarly journals from their beginning to approximately five years ago. Disciplines include botany, business, ecology, general science, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, statistics. Browsable by discipline and full-text searchable across all disciplines. UCLA has access to selected JSTOR e-books.
Example searched is JSTOR:
- Keyword: Food Studies - search where "Food Studies" is the keyword.
- Keyword: Food Studies AND Environmental Impact - search that has "Food Studies" and "Environmental Impact" as the keywords.
- Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new window
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Index and abstracts for articles on the history of the world from 1450 to the present (excluding the United States and Canada, which are covered in America: History and Life) published since 1955.
- Anthropology Plus This link opens in a new window
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Contains records from Anthropological Literature and Anthropological Index for journal articles, reports, commentaries, edited works, and obituaries in the fields of social, cultural, physical, biological, and linguistic anthropology, ethnology, ethnography, archaeology, folklore, material culture, and interdisciplinary studies. Covers the late 19th century to the present. - MarketResearch.com Academic This link opens in a new window
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Searchable repository (aggregator) of over 3,000 full-text market research reports covering eight major subject areas: business services, consumer goods, demographics, food & beverage, heavy industry, life sciences, public sector, and technology and media. The following market research firms are the contributors included in UCLA's subscription: Freedonia Focus; Kalorama Information; Mind Commerce; Packaged Facts; and Simba Information. To get to Freedonia Focus Reports, go to Advanced Search and click on the drop-down menu of Publishers.
Article Databases: Food in Literature & Folklore
- Literature Online This link opens in a new window
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Also known as LION. An array of literary databases (including the full text of poems, plays, and fiction), reference works (including bibliographies, encyclopedias, etc.), and links to other Web resources for the study of literature. The complete text of journal articles is available on the database for all or some of the journals indexed. Fully searchable texts of over 250,000 works in English and American Literature. - Gale Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window
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Biographies, bibliographies, and critical analysis of authors from every age and literary discipline. Covers more than 120,000 novelists, poets, essayists, journalists, and other writers. Combines the core Gale Group literary databases: Contemporary Authors, Contemporary Literary Criticism, and Dictionary of Literary Biography. Complements Literature Criticism Online. - MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
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Indexes worldwide publications on literature, language, linguistics, folklore, film, television, and theater from 1923 to the present. See also the MLA Directory of Periodicals. - Early English Books Online (EEBO) This link opens in a new window
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Citations from early English texts from 1475 to 1700, presented as digital images. Includes works by Malory, Bacon, More, Erasmus, Boyle, Newton, Galileo; musical exercises by Henry Purcell and novels by Aphra Behn; prayer books, pamphlets, and proclamations; almanacs, calendars, and many other primary sources. - World Folklore and Folklife This link opens in a new window
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Thousands of classic folk tales, including the complete Hans Christian Andersen stories, Grimms' fairy tales, and folktales from around the world. Contextual material adds new depth to familiar stories.
Resources
- Student Farms and GardensThematic and topical bibliographies on Food Studies and related topics by students in the Global Food Initiative Fellowship. 8/23/17
- Biomimicry in Sustainable Food and AgricultureArticle that explores the relevance of biomimicry’s principles to the field of sustainable food and agriculture.