University Without Walls

Finding Articles in Journals

Things to consider when beginning your research:

It pays to do a bit of preliminary research to get a better sense of your topic. 

Google Scholar and Academic Search Premier are excellent places to begin.

They are listed below with their link after them.
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com?inst=10590949853672258133
Academic Search Premier: http://silk.library.umass.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.asp?profile=web&defaultdb=aph

Most research questions are inherently interdisciplinary in nature and it pays to strategize a bit to think about what facet of your topic do you wnat to research.

For example, if your topic is autism: Are you looking at the Educational, Psychological, Medical, or Therapeutic (PT, OT, and the like) dimensions of autism? Or all of them?

The answer to this question will determine where to go to futher research 

For Example, if you are looking for articles about autism:
Educational: look in Education Journals or ERIC
Psychological: PsycInfo or PsycArticles
Medical: PubMed
Theraputic (Occupational or Physical): CINAHL

The best research will use articles from all of these sources as it provides the most holistic view of the available research

Click the Database Locator link to see the available databases listed by subject. Suggested subject databases can be selected by clicking the far left drop-down menu and choosing a subject (e.g. selecting Psychology gives you the Psychology databases).
Two excellent all purpose databases to begin your research with are followed by links to the databases:
Google Scholar https://scholar.google.com?inst=10590949853672258133 
Academic Search Premier http://silk.library.umass.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.asp?profile=web&defaultdb=aph
2. A valid IT Net ID and Password (UMass email login and password) are required to use the library databases from home. 

3. If there is a link labelled .html or .pdf is listed after a citatation, click it and you can print the article directly from the database.

If, instead, a UM Links button is displayed, clicking it will search the other UMass databases for a full text copy (it is only a way of searching the other databases).  If it is not available from another database, it will either give the location of the paper copy, or a link to the Interlibrary Loan Account login page where a request can be made for the article from another library.  When searching the databases, remember that not all articles are available from all databases full text.  .

4. Never, ever, ever, pay for an article; instead request it through Interlibrary Loan.
To register (or log in) you just need to know your SPIRE username and password.  After logging in, fill out the contact information (if it is your first time logging in) and then bibliographic information or just the bibliographic information (if you have used the system before).  The click submit and ILL will send a scan of your item to your Interlibrary Loan account.