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Finding Articles
There are several ways to look for articles for your particular research question:
1. Easiest, but limited results – QuickSearch
Pros
- Very easy to use. Pick a general topic and a specific search term
- Good for when you just need a few articles for your project
Cons
- Only searches in a few (3 – 7) article databases
- Only displays the first 30 articles from each database. You can click for more but it only brings up 20 more articles for each click.
2. Easy, with more options and more results – Google Scholar
Pros
- Easy to use. Pick a specific search term, or go to the advanced search and choose a general topic.
- Advanced features let you select a date range
- Good for when you just need a few articles for your topic and you don’t want to miss a good article
Cons
- May locate articles that USF cannot provide immediate access to. You can get these through InterLibrary Loan, but it might take days or weeks.
- Article results will be mixed with books
3. More work, but best results – Subject Guides
Pros
- Tells you which article databases are going to be the best for your topic
- Each database provides you with good searching options
- Good for when you need to locate all of the relevant articles for your topic, such as for an important research paper, thesis, or dissertation
Cons
- More work involved. You must choose a general topic area first, then go to each suggested database to search for articles. You may have to do multiple searches.