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Writing: Finding Articles
LIBRARY SEARCH
This is a great place to start when you do not know where to begin. The Library Search is the library's version of Google. It searches both our library catalog and many of our databases all at once!
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 a link, click on
This will check the other library databases for the full text of the article.
Some databases also have information about other types of resources: sometimes they have information about books, book chapters, government documents, and other things.
General Writing & Literature Databases
- MLA International Bibliography with Full Text• Articles, books, and other scholarship related to literature, language, linguistics and folklore
Features:
• Saves your recent searches
• Citation tool - Literature Online• Full-text, searchable access to a wide range of English language literary works, criticism, and reference sources.
Features:
• Robust searching allows users to find authors by nationality, ethnicity, movement and period. - Literature Resource Center• Includes full text access to a wide range of sources for literary research, including peer-
reviewed journal articles, book reviews, biographical and topical overview essays and poetry and short fiction from contemporary literary magazines.
Features:
• Topic Finder
• Person Search
• Works Search - Humanities Abstracts and Retrospective• Abstracts and bibliographic indexing of the most noted scholarly sources in the humanities, as well as numerous lesser-known but important specialized magazines.
Features:
• Web News
• PlumX Metrics (tracks citation, usage, and capture data for individual articles) - CompPile• Provides citations
• Good to use for when you need sources
• Described as "an ongoing inventory of publications in post-secondary composition, rhetoric, ESL, and technical writing: 1939-1999" - Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA)• Contains abstracts and indexing for articles, books, and other scholarly materials related to linguistics and its sub-disciplines
• Coverage is from 1973 to the present
Features:
• Citation tool
• Thesaurus
• Saves your recent searches
SPECIALIZED SUBJECT DATABASES
- Michigan Authors and Illustrators• Search by author name, title, genre, or city
- Play Index• Helps one find a copy of a play
• Lists plays from 1949 to the present, in or translated into English
• Includes one-act plays, pageants, plays in verse, radio & TV, & classic drama
Features:
• Search by title, author, subject, style, genre, etc. - Children's Literature Comprehensive Database• Contains "information about children's books, video and audio recordings, film strips, and other children-focused media"
• Has "more than 900,000 catalog records" and "more than 130,000 critical reviews of thousands of children's books, ranging from the earliest baby board books to novels and nonfiction for young adults
Features:
• Over sixty best books lists such as School Library Journal Best Children's Books
• All state reading lists are included and updated annually
• Appropriate reading levels are also identified in each book record
INTERDISCIPLINARY DATABASES
- Academic Search Ultimate• An excellent source to use if you don't know where to begin your search
• Contains a large number of full text articles
Features:
• PlumX Metrics (tracks citation, usage, and capture data for individual articles)
• Allows you to limit your search to scholarly publications - JSTOR• Provides full-text backfiles of many of the core research and society published journals in economics, business, history, political science, and sociology.
• JSTOR covers the core journals in most disciplines
• Has backfiles from the beginning of each journal up to 3-5 years ago.
Features:
• Text Analyzer
• Thesaurus - New York TimesFor historical perspectives
- Oxford Scholarship OnlineComplete text of over 1,800 Oxford books in 13 broad subject areas.
- Project Muse• Includes disciplines primarily in the humanities and social sciences – “literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies and more.”
Features:
• Offers full-text, journal, book, and related content from over 200 not-for-profit publishers including many of the world's most distinguished university presses, scholarly societies, independent publishers, and academic departments.
Subjects: Writing
- Last Updated: Apr 14, 2025 1:01 PM
- URL: https://libguides.gvsu.edu/writing
