SWRK 3324: Oppression, Diversity and Social Justice: Finding Articles

Choosing a Database

When you are looking for scholarly journal articles, most often you will want to use one of the library's databases. While some library databases do have a general focus, like Academic Search Complete, most bring together sources that are focused on similar areas of interest or similar methodological approaches.

Because databases are organized this way, your first step when looking for an article is to ask yourself "What academic disciplines might be interested in my topic?" This question will help you determine which databases you will search in. Once you have determined which disciplines might be applicable to your research, consider using the Neumann Library's Research Guides or the subject selector on the library's Databases A-Z page.

See this list for a collection of databases that may be relevant to researching diversity, oppression, and social justice.

Constructing a Search

Once you have selected a database in which to search, you can use your keywords to construct a query. Most databases include multiple search boxes to facilitate the use of Boolean logic. It is a good idea to use one search box for each search concept. For example: 

Finding Full-Text

Library databases are principally designed to help you identify existing research on a topic. In some cases this means that a database will alert you to the existence of an article with a citation and abstract, but won't actually provide the full-text of an article.

• If a databases does provide full-text access to an article, it will generally provide a link like  or  allowing you to view the full text of the article.
• A link like indicates that the database does not have full-text of the article. However, clicking this link will look for the article in other databases and collections to which Neumann Library subscribes.
• In some cases, you will find an article to which Neumann Library does not have access. Please consider submitting an Interlibrary Loan Request.