FSEM 100: Identity Theft

You can expand your search for articles by using additional databases, ​a few of which are listed below:

Magazine and journal articles take less time to publish than books, so they typically provide recent information on a topic. Because they are shorter than books, they take less time to read. However, articles often focus on a specific aspect of a topic rather than providing an overview or background information. Here are some things to keep in mind when searching for articles.

• Journal articles often provide the most up-to-date research in a field and present original research findings, a review of research findings on a topic, or take a position on a key question within the field. 
• Newspaper and popular magazine articles are good sources for current events and controversies. 
• Some scholarly journal articles are peer-reviewed, others are not.
• The library's article databases include scholarly articles, peer-reviewed articles, magazine articles, newspaper articles, and book review articles.

In some databases, you can search for the type of article you want -- an empirical research article, a review article, a peer-reviewed article, a book review, etc. 

Review articles. Sometimes categorized as a literature review in a database, a review article is a survey of articles on a topic with findings summarized. This provides the reader with the current state of research in a field or research area.

Meta-analysis. Similar to a review article, but uses a mathematical method to pool and analyze the findings of the articles.

Empirical research articles. Articles that report findings from an experiment or observation.

Book reviews. These articles typically summarize the plot or thesis of a book and compare it to books on the same topic or in the same genre. A book review can help you determine whether you want to find and read that book or move on to something else.

Interlibrary Loan is a service available to Stetson University faculty, students, and staff. To aid in your research, we will borrow from other libraries items not held in the Stetson Library. Please allow one - two weeks for delivery of physical items (books and dissertations) and one week for delivery of electronic items (journal articles).

Make sure to plan ahead and put in requests early for best results! Click on the link below for more information and to order items through ILL.

Journal Articles can be found in the Stetson’s Library by searching through its databases.

A database is a search tool (similar to a search engine) that contains citations to journal articles (although, sometimes other materials/article types can be found within the database).

You should start your search on the Library’s homepage. Choose “Databases” from several locations. You will see an option to search databases by subject or alphabetically A-Z. You can choose a general database, such as Academic Search Complete or ProQuest Complete or a specific database that matches your topic.

Once here, scroll through the list of databases or use the pull-down menu to narrow your search to one of the specific subjects listed. Then choose the database you would like to search, and click on the link.

Whatever database you choose, your next step is to type your "search terms" in the boxes and hit Search.

Enter your "search terms" as a Boolean style search (which means do not type in a phrase or question). For example, type in "human rights" AND "social justice," or other keywords that describe your topic. Think of keywords as the most important concepts in a research question or topic. It is helpful to simplify your "search terms" as much as possible to the main ideas of your topic.

However, if you get too many results, you can narrow your search down, by adding additional search terms.

Once you have your results, it is helpful to limit your search by "relevance," usually found at the top of the results page.

In examining your results, clicking on the Title link will bring you to the full record. The full record provides additional information about the article, including:

• the abstract (summary of the article)
• information about the author/s
• the source or journal the article came from
• citation information (author's name, title of the article, title of the periodical/journal that contains the article, including the date of publication, volume and issue number, and page numbers)

To view the FULL-TEXT for the article, look for a link that says full text (either HTML or PDF). Clicking on either of these links will bring you to the complete text of the article.

However, if you need additional help, please feel free to ask any questions at the Main Desk and they will direct you to the librarians.