WRT 120/130: Articles/Databases

Find articles, books, and more!


Advanced Search

This is a great place to start when you do not know where to begin. You can search both our library catalog and many of our databases all at once!

Starting points for finding articles in library databases

Starting points for current issues

Topic Finder

The Topic Finder tool is a great way to consider potential topics for your papers, or to focus a general idea to a more specific one. This tool can be found in any Gale database, and the database you'll use here is Academic OneFile, though the Michigan e-Library, or  MeL.

Library Basics

Finding Articles

Databases allow you to search for articles about your topic. They show you information about an article: the title, author, and name of the journal or magazine the article appeared in. This is called the citation. Some databases also contain an abstract, or summary, of the article.

Many databases also include the articles themselves (called the full text of the article). When that happens, you should see a link to an HTML or PDF document. If you do not see that link, you should see another option for finding the full text, for example: "Get it @ GVSU", "Get full text", "Check for full text", "Request from Document Delivery". Click on the link and follow the prompts. In some cases, you may need to click on the article title to see the PDF link or other options.

If you run into any issues or land on a screen that indicates you have to pay for the article, ask us for help!

  • Chat (Click on the "Ask A Question" button for chat, text, and phone options)
  • Librarians

Some databases also have information about other types of resources: sometimes they have information about books, book chapters, government documents, and other things.

  • Last Updated: Feb 20, 2024 10:23 AM
  • URL: https://libguides.gvsu.edu/WRT130