Article databases (sometimes called indexes) let you search multiple publications (such as magazines, journals, and newspapers) for articles published. Some databases are very specialized and others are more general. Multidisciplinary databases cover a variety of topics. The large box below contains links to useful starting places.
Many of these databases contain academic journals, which include peer-reviewed articles. These sources can be particularly helpful in providing further depth of analysis, contextualization, and theoretical grounding to contemporary news topics. They are a good middle ground between your daily news sources (which are timely but provide little background, history, context, and depth) and books (which are less current but provide ample background, history, context, and depth). Academic journal articles are usually about 25 pages long (so, relatively short), somewhat timely (they will cover issues from the contemporary perspective from the date in which they are written), and provide a good degree of depth of analysis and contextualization. They are also often very explicitly aimed to advance a particular argument or perspective, and it is this aspect of the academic journal that can be the most useful for debate.
Similar to the strategy for reading a book, you should approach journal articles strategically so as not to waste time. Conduct a thorough search on the topic using the tips on the How to Do Research page. To determine which articles to read, read the abstract closely and determine its relevance. If you are not sure, read the article introduction. If the abstract and/or introduction suggest it will be a relevant article, then skim the article’s sections looking for the most pertinent information. The introduction will likely have a preview of those sections and give you a sense of the portions of the article that will be most relevant. It might all be pertinent! But more likely, some of the sections will be more relevant than others. Read those sections closely that are most useful. Then, read the conclusion closely if the article on the whole has proved valuable.
Finally, throughout the reading process, take note of sections that were particularly useful and see if the author is citing other authors that might also be relevant. Track those authors down in the bibliography and proceed to reading those articles. If you found this to be a particularly great article, you might also consider just browsing the bibliography, looking at the titles of the sources listed in the bibliography to see if anything jumps out at you that you might want to read. I often find my best sources for my research this way! Happy reading!
-- Helen
Search Tips:
Before you search, Limit Results:
In the Document Type category, select "Article."
Language: select "English."
If article currency is important, limit by Published Date.
Before you search, Limit Results:
In the Source type category, select both "Magazines" and "Scholarly Journals." (this database has lots of source types and your search results may be confusing)
In the Document type category, select "Article."
Language: select "English."
If article currency is important, limit by Publication date.
Before you search, Limit Results:
In the by document type category, select "Article." If you want to search for broadcast transcripts instead, select "Broadcast transcript." To search for both articles and broadcast transcripts, select both categories.
If article currency is important, limit by publication date(s).
Before you search, Limit Results:
In the by document type category, select "Article" and/or "Case Overview."
If article currency is important, limit by publication date(s).
To find subject-specific article databases and many important electronic sources, go to Research Databases. Use the pull-down "All Subjects" list and select the subject you need. To view only article databases in a Subject list, select "articles databases" from the "All Info Types" pull-down list.
When searching for articles using UVM article databases, the HTML or PDF full-text article may not be attached to the citation. If not, look for this icon:
Use this button to help you:
If the article does not appear or if something confuses you, use 
to determine if the library owns the journal/magazine (print or online) and the issue and year you need.
What If the Library Doesn't Own What I Need?
Obtain the item through Interlibrary Loan.
The large search box on the library homepage provides access to our "discovery tool"; it is a Google-like academic search engine designed to retrieve lots of content in our library and beyond (books, articles, videos, etc.). Search the Library Catalog (a different search interface from the Classic Library Catalog ) and lots -but not all- of the content in databases subscribed to by the library. It isn’t meant to replace individual database searching, but provides an opportunity to discover the results of searches in many databases and the library catalog in a single search. Sign in (upper-right of screen) to access the most content available. Note: Using a computer off-campus? Connect to the UVM network via ezproxy or VPN client (recommended) before searching CATQuest.