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GEOG 414: Research & Writing: Find Articles

For students in Dr. Skeeter's course.

Welcome to the GEOG 414 Guide

Depending on your topic, your research needs might be more interdisciplinary in nature, using humanities and social sciences journals rather ones in the natural sciences. I can recommend more databases and search strategies. Let me know if you want to chat about your topic!

The databases below include large, interdisciplinary collections. They'll be the best places to start searching for your topic to make sure it's new research. 

Search Tips

Booleans: AND, OR, NOT

  • AND combines two search words together. Both must appear in your article, narrowing your results. 
  • OR allows you to search for synonyms or like terms. Only one of the terms must appear in your article, broadening your results. 
  • NOT removes a specific search term from your results.

Quotation marks

  • Phrases "stick together" like they're one term. "climate change"; "blue whale"; Cretaceous period"

Asterisks

  • Add to the end of a root word to find all words that include all words that include that root term. volcan* - volcano, volcanic, volcanology, volcanism

Limiters

  • Usually found on the left side of the screen
  • Narrow by subject, date, or peer-reviewed
  • For this particular project, you want to cast as wide a net as possible (at least at first), so you likely won't use too many limiters. 

Large Databases - Best Bets

Other Useful Databases

Google Scholar

Google Scholar Search

This search engine is perfect for research projects where you need to see the articles that have already been published about a topic. Google Scholar is not a complete representative of all scholarly journals, so you'll want to check multiple library databases as well.