How Do I Find an Article?

Choose a database

Articles are published in journals, magazines, and newspapers that are indexed in a variety of online databases. Since no single database provides access to every article ever published, you may need to search multiple databases to find what you are looking for. See Indexes and Databases to browse databases by title or subject.

You can also use the Articles tab on the library homepage to search hundreds of databases simultaneously.

Enter your search terms

Enter your search term(s) into the search box.

For best results, break your topic or research question into 2 or 3 key concepts that can be used as keywords.

Topic	Keywords
Does exposure to violent media adversely affect human behavior?	violence, media, behavior
Does soft drink consumption increase the risk of obesity in children?	soft drinks, obesity, children
How does class size impact academic achievement?	class size, academic achievement

Use search operators (AND, OR, NOT) to define relationships between your search terms and create complex queries.

Use AND to search for multiple keywords.

media AND violence finds articles that contain both media and violence

AND

Use OR to search for synonyms or related terms.

children OR adolescents finds results that contain either children or adolescents

Use NOT to exclude terms from your results.

dolphins NOT football finds results that contain dolphins but not football

NOT

Find full text

Some databases provide the full text of an article, while others provide only citations or abstracts. If you don't see the full text of an article, click Get it @ R to:

Find it online	If Rutgers has online access to the article, you will be taken directly to the full text.
Find it at the library	If the journal is available in print at a Rutgers library, you will see a link to the catalog to check library holdings.
Request it	If the article is not available at Rutgers, you may request an electronic copy through interlibrary loan.

Full text available

Full text