LibGuides: Honors American Government &amp; Politics: Landmark Legislation Research Paper: Secondary Sources: Journal Articles

NOTE: Scientific studies published in academic journals are considered primary source material.

Scholarly journal articles are written by scholars for scholars and present a new interpretation or thesis based upon a synthesis of primary sources, scholarly journal articles, and other secondary sources.
Many are also peer-reviewed; in other words, they must be approved by other scholars in the field before publication..
Scholarly journal articles generally have a bibliography of materials for further study, including primary sources, journal articles, and books.
Look for journal article references in the bibliographies and/or notes in your secondary source books / ebooks and other journal articles.

Online Journal Databases

Academic OneFile This link opens in a new window
Gale’s premier periodical resource provides millions of articles from over 17,000 scholarly journals and other authoritative sources—including thousands of podcasts and transcripts from NPR and CNN as well as videos from BBC Worldwide Learning.
NOTE: Citations can be exported to NoodleTools.
Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Ebsco's largest periodicals database provides access to thousands of magazines and journals in all disciplines. SEARCH TIP: Limit your search to Online Full Text. On your search results page, you can choose additional filters such as Date range, Source type, or Subject. To open a full-text article, click on Access options.
NOTE: Citations can be exported to NoodleTools.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Access full-text content from scholarly journals in more than 50 disciplines, some dating back into the 19th century and many which are peer-reviewed. It also contains over 100,000 ebooks and a number of primary source collections including 19th Century British Pamphlets.
NOTE: Citations can be exported to NoodleTools.

General Search Tips for Online Databases:

Limit results to Full Text.

Make sure that all the results are items you can access by limiting results to Full Text results only. Databases often include a mix of full text items and abstracts/synopses of items. Selecting Full Text helps prevent frustration.

Look for search terms in article titles.

Database searches generally default to keyword. Using the drop-down list to the right of the search bar, look for title, document title, or comparable term such as newspaper Headline.

Use Filters.

Look for filters / limiters on your results page, such as Subject and Source types. This will help ensure you get only the results that you want and will make sure you don't have to wade through as many results.

Use AND / OR operators (also known as Boolean operators).

Use AND in your search when there are words that all need to be in your search results.
Use OR when there are two words that can be used interchangeably, but at least one of them needs to be present in your results.
Use NOT when you want to exclude a word from your search.
Examples:
- coronavirus OR COVID-19
- coronavirus OR COVID-19 AND Spain (Articles about the virus in Spain only.)
- coronavirus OR COVID-19 NOT United States (Articles about the virus anywhere but the United States.)