Research Guide: Scholarly Journals

Use this guide to learn more about scholarly journals and the peer-review process

Video Tutorial - How to Identify, Find, Use and Cite Scholarly (Peer-Reviewed) Journal Articles

Limiting by source type in the databases

Finding Scholarly Journal Articles in Library Databases

When searching for articles in library databases, you can limit your search to only scholarly journals. The screenshots of the databases shown below outline where you can limit by source type to find the type of article you need. Remember that academic articles and scholarly articles are the same thing; different databases use the different terms, but you can know that they are the same!

Limiting to academic journals in Ebsco's Academic Search Complete database
  • As shown in the image below, two sets of keywords are typed into the boxes: charter schools AND "Washington D.C."
  • You can use the filters below the search boxes to limit by source type, by year, by language, and more - OR, as shown in the next image, you can use the filters on the following page of results.

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the advanced search page showing the search boxes at top with the various filters at the bottom

  • This image highlights the banner of filters at the top of the page, along with the places to click to view more about the article or download it.

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the search results page showing a list of articles, with the filters at the top of the page pointed out. Also highlighted are the subject headings and the button to push to download the article.

Limiting to scholarly journals in ProQuest Combined Databases

Limiting in this database is very similar to other advanced searches in the library's databases. You can click to limit to full-text articles, to peer-reviewed articles, and you can use the built in Boolean tools (AND, OR, NOT) to change your search results and combine your simple keywords.

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This image shows a screenshot of the database search page, showing how you can search by topic or keyword in the search boxes provided, and how you can then check a box to limit to full-text and to scholarly journals

Find Articles with Holman Library One Search

Find Scholarly Journal articles in One Search

Search across most library databases at once using the One Search tool:

Find Articles in Your Subject Area

Look for the menu that looks like this (see image below) - showing all of the library's databases listed out by topic, or subject area.

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databases by subject - what you will see when you click the link above