Research

Selecting articles in databases

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Most databases, such as ProQuest and LexisNexis, list at least the following information, which can help you decide if a source is relevant, current, scholarly, and a suitable length for your purposes.

After you have conducted a search, you can scan for potential sources and preview the most promising.

Scanning results for potential sources

Title and brief description (How relevant?)
Date (How current?)
Name of periodical (How scholarly? How authoritative?)
Length (How substantial?)

Look for keywords that are associated with an article in the results. Sometimes those keywords can suggest other searches that might generate additional relevant articles.

Note: Don’t confuse the name of the database (such as Academic OneFile) with the title of a journal that the database indexes (such as The Journal of American History).

Previewing promising sources

For a magazine or journal article, look for an abstract or a statement of purpose at the beginning; also look for a summary at the end.
For a newspaper article, focus on the headline and the opening paragraphs.
For any sources, scan headings and look at visuals—charts, graphs, diagrams, or illustrations—that might indicate the source’s focus and scope.

Selecting articles in databases

Scanning results for potential sources

Previewing promising sources

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