Use the resources on this page to find articles on your topic:
These databases are good places to start searching for articles on your writer and the context in which they wrote. If you need help selecting a databases, brainstorming topics and search terms, and tracking down articles, connect with a librarian.
A good place to start research on most any subject. This multi-disciplinary database indexes nearly 8,050 publications and provides full text for nearly 4,600, including more than 3,900 peer-reviewed journals. Access is provided by eLibraryMN (ELM).
This search engine points toward scholarly research rather than all Web-based sources. It is stronger in the sciences than in the humanities, with social sciences somewhere in between. One interesting feature of Google Scholar is that in includes a link to sources that cite a particular item. Not all of the articles in Google Scholar are free; the library can obtain many of them for you through Interlibrary loan.
JSTOR is a digital library of journals, academic eBooks, images, and primary sources. JSTOR provides book and journal content from the date of initial publication up to a "moving wall" of 3 to 5 years before the present year.
The major research resource for information on English literature, foreign languages and linguistics. Includes references to scholarly articles, books, book chapters, book reviews, and dissertations; coverage dates back to the 1920's.
Example 1. Quinney, Anne Holloway. “Excess and Identity: The Franco-Romanian Ionesco Combats Rhinoceritis.” South Central Review: The Journal of the South Central Modern Language Association, vol. 24, no. 3, Sept. 2007, pp. 36–52.
Example 2. Park, Jihay. “Victorian Masculinity and Mrs. Warren’s Profession.” SHAW: The Journal of Bernard Shaw Studies, vol. 41, no. 1, Jan. 2021, pp. 202–16.
Example 3. Dominiczak, Marek H. “Physician Writers: Anton Chekhov.” Clinical Chemistry, vol. 60, no. 4, Apr. 2014, pp. 703–04.
Once you've identified an interesting article, look to see if the full text is there. If not, follow these steps:
If an article is not available in full text or in print, request it through interlibrary loan, using your Gustavus account login to identify yourself. This generally means it will be scanned in for you at another library. An e-mail message will be sent to you with a URL and pin number to retrieve it. Though these scanned articles are sometimes are available within 24 hours, they can take longer. Plan ahead.
Sometimes you come across a footnote with an article that looks interesting. You don't need to turn to a database to find it. Check the title of the magazine or journal (not the article title) from the journal locator. If it is not available to us at Gustavus, log in to your library account and fill out an interlibrary loan request.
As you can see, tracking down the hard copies of materials can be tricky! Need help? Contact a librarian!
While articles are a little easier to skim than books, thanks to their shorter length, some scholarly articles can be dense. Fortunately, there are built-in features within articles to help you comprehend their main arguments.
Nonscholarly articles, including newspaper and magazine articles are usually easier to comprehend quickly, as they are written for a general audience and do not usually assume that readers have a lot of background knowledge on a topic. Look for these features:
Scholarly articles are written by experts in a field for other experts (and students). Use these features and techniques to explore their main points:
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