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.