How to Find Alternative Academic Resources

Learning how to find scholarly journal articles and papers is an important part of the college experience. But until you're familiar with the process, it can be daunting the first time your professor assigns a research paper that must be accompanied by a bibliography of academic articles (that's right, no Wikipedia). Fortunately, your college or university's library website should contain membership to some – if not all – of the following databases.

Google Scholar
Google's service is a fantastic starting point for research. The search engine combines the ability to search for digital and physical copies of articles from a wide range of scholarly journals. However, you'll often need an account to get access to specific articles (check with your school's library to see if they have login information). Furthermore, Google Scholar will rank highly cited articles first, and has an extensive database of US legal cases.

EBSCO
Many libraries will offer access to EBSCO and its "Academic Search Complete" system. EBSCO covers subjects within the humanities and sciences, with the ability to search only for scholarly (peer reviewed) journal articles.

JSTOR
Similar to EBSCO, JSTOR provides users with more than 1,000 academic journals to search. On the site's homepage, click "login page" on the right side or login through your school library's website.

Project MUSE
Project MUSE primarily covers the humanities and social sciences, providing scholarly journals from over 120 publishers. Click "Log in" at the top of the page and then look for your institution using the dropdown menu.

Science Direct
For science subjects, Science Direct is an outstanding database that features more than 10 million journal articles and book chapters. Moreover, the database gives you the opportunity to search the Top 25 Articles, with the ability to categorize by subject area and date. To log in through your school, click "Login" and then... [continues]

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