LibGuides: LES 401: Legal Research and Citation: Find Articles

Databases

These databases are the best place to start for finding scholarly articles.

JSTOR Archival Journal & Primary Source Collection This link opens in a new window
The JSTOR Archival Journal & Primary Source Collection provides access to all licensed JSTOR archival journals and primary sources content in a single collection. It includes all 2,800+ academic journals on JSTOR that span more than 60 disciplines across the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, along with millions of primary sources across four collections.
Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Full-text articles from scholarly journals in history, the humanities, the social sciences, and the sciences. Disciplines covered include literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, economics, and many others. Searches can be conducted across the full text of all journals in the database.
Newspapers - U. S. Major Dailies This link opens in a new window
This database cross searches the major U.S. newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post.
Statistical Insight This link opens in a new window
Access to tables and citations to statistics produced by the U.S. federal, state and local governments, international governmental organizations, and non-governmental organizations.
HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
This research platform provides thousands of multidisciplinary periodicals dating back to their inception, essential government documents, international resources, case law, and much more. Composed of fully searchable image-based PDFs.
SPORTDiscus with Full Text This link opens in a new window
SPORTDiscus with Full Text is the world's most comprehensive source of full text for sports, sports medicine journals, and athletic training topics. This authoritative database contains full text for many of the most used journals in the database with no embargo., This is the definitive research tool for all areas of sports & sports medicine literature and athletic training with full-text coverage dating back to 1930.
Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Searching Google Scholar using this link allows current UIS students, faculty, and staff to access full text of subscription required sources as well as information freely available online.
WestLawNext & News This link opens in a new window
This is a full-text database providing law-related resources, including Federal and State court cases, Federal and State statutes, and other legal documents. Also includes thousands of law journals.

Basic Search Tips

Your search strategies will depend partly on the research tools you use. Here are some search tips to get you started.

Limit the number of search terms that you use. Start with only 2 or 3 search terms.
Use search terms that best express your topic. Avoid non-essential terms like "the" and "of."
Try multiple searches. Experiment with related terms, including broader or narrower terms.
Explore the database's Advanced Search options.
On the search results page, look for ways to refine your search.

(Adapted from Rowan University Research Guides)

1. Identify the important nouns or main ideas in your research question.

Research Question: What is the effect of incorrect health information on social media?

2. Generate synonyms for each main term, along with words that are narrower, broader, and related.

Incorrect information: deceit, manipulation, lies, false, slander, misinformation
Social media: online, web, internet, web 2.0, online social networks
Health: wellness, doctor, physical wellbeing, medical

3. Start searching and modify your search terms as necessary.

Pay attention to titles, abstracts, and headings used in the results you find helpful.
Some databases provide lists of subject terms, subject headings, or keywords for individual sources. See if you can find those to help add to your own list.

Watch this video from the University of Houston Libraries to learn more about this process:

If you are getting 0 search results, try some of these strategies.

Is this the best database for your topic? Be prepared to try several different databases.
Use good search terms. Check spelling and brainstorm synonyms or related terms. You can use OR between synonyms (for example: salary OR pay OR compensation).
Too many search terms. If you have three or more search terms, try removing one to see if your results improve.
Too many limiters. Use only limiters that are absolutely necessary.
Your topic is too narrow. What is the broader theme of your topic? Break your topic down and search for different parts separately. For example, if you are comparing primary school education in China and Spain, search for articles about each country separately. Then synthesize the information you find.

One of the best ways to find more sources is through citation chaining. With citation chaining, you find other sources that an original source has referenced as well as other articles that have cited it since it was written. These citations create a "web" of related sources.

Search Tip: Type in your article title or topic. On the search results page, select "References" to see what future articles have cited that particular article. To see what articles an article has cited in its reference page, select the article title, and find the "Cited References" section.

The following database includes this feature.

Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Web of Science Core Collection is our premier resource on the platform and the world's most trusted citation indexes for scientific and scholarly research containing Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, Arts & Humanities Citation Index. Web of Science indexes core journal articles, conference proceedings, data sets, and other resources in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities.