Northern Kentucky University

When your professor gives you a list of approved journals, and asks you to locate articles on your topic for your literature review or research paper, the task may seem overwhelming if you are unfamiliar with the process. These instructions will help you quickly and efficiently locate articles on your topic, utilizing the resources of Steely Library.

First, you will want to determine if Steely Library carries a particular journal on your list in one of the library's electronic databases.

To do this, choose Electronic Journals from the Quick Links at the top of the Steely Library webpage.

Once there, you’ll want to search for your particular journal by typing the title in the Find box. Here, I'm searching for the journal title Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology. Next, I need to click on Search.

If Steely Library has the journal that you're searching in any databases, those databases will be displayed. Sometimes, there will only be one (or no) database that carries that journal, but in other cases, the journal will be indexed in multiple databases. For the journal title I’ve searched, a number of databases seem to carry the journal. When there are multiple listings, you can choose the database that you prefer. (Note: Determining factors may be date coverage of the database or your familiarity with a particular database.) If you see the term embargo listed, this refers to an agreement between the publisher and the database vendor stipulating that a delay occurred between the print publication of a journal issue and the availability in an electronic full-text database.

Once you've used Electronic Journals to locate the database that carries your journal, you'll need to return to the main Steely Library homepage and choose Articles & Databases from the Library Quick Links drop-down.

For this particular search, I'm going to choose the database Academic Search Premier, so I'll click on "a" from the alphabetical list.

Next, I'll choose Academic Search Premier.

Once you're in whatever database you choose, I'd suggest selecting Advanced Search so that you have more searching options. I've pointed out a few of those options below (circled, with arrows). First, you'll have more search boxes, so you can narrow your search using Boolean operators such as AND, OR, and NOT between your terms. (For more information on this, see the Boolean Logic tutorial.

You'll also have the option to narrow your results to full text (the ability to see the article in its entirety, on your computer screen) and/or scholarly peer-reviewed journals.

Most importantly, by putting your specific journal title in the Publication box, you can search for your topic ONLY in this particular journal.

If you have further questions about locating articles via Steely Library, see Find Articles in Steely Databases tutorial.

For searching tips and strategies, see the Searching Tips and Strategies tutorial.

For tips on conducting a literature review, see the Conducting a Literature Review tutorial.

To view all of Steely Library Tutorials, see the complete listing of Tutorials.

For additional assistance, click on the Ask Steely Library! button on the Steely Library page, or go to http://library.nku.edu/ask/.