Where to Find Scholarly Articles
The following are a small selection of possibly relevant databases. For a full list of databases at Oberlin, check out our Databases A-Z. Try limiting by Gender, Sexuality, & Feminist Studies as a Subject.
To find scholarly articles in databases, look for filters that allow you to limit results to scholarly & peer-reviewed articles.
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Gender Studies Database This link opens in a new window
Covers the full spectrum of sexual diversity issues and gender-engaged scholarship inside and outside academia. Source documents include professional journals, conference papers, books, book chapters, government reports, discussion and working papers, theses and dissertations, and more. Dates of Coverage: 1972 to date
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LGBTQ+ Source This link opens in a new window
Includes the full text of more than one hundred current or historically significant Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) journals, magazines and regional newspapers, and books.
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Women's Studies International This link opens in a new window
Nearly 800 essential sources including journals, newspapers, newsletters, bulletins, books, book chapters, proceedings, reports, theses, dissertations, NGO studies, Web sites & Web documents, and grey literature. Dates of Coverage: 1972-
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SocINDEX with Full Text This link opens in a new windowProvides full text of some journal articles, and indexing and abstracts for journals, books and conference papers. Covers all sub-fields of sociology, including criminology, gender, marriage & family studies, social work, social psychology, addictions, violence, and more. Covers scholarly publications in sociology, social work, and related fields. Contains 2.3 million articles and other materials (64% in full text) with deep coverage from 1960 and some back to 1882.
Multidisciplinary
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JSTOR This link opens in a new windowScholarly journal archive for the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences; current issues (usually the last 2-5 years) are not digitized by JSTOR and may be obtained elsewhere.
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Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Scholarly literature in the sciences, health and medicine, social sciences, arts, and humanities and proceedings of international conferences, symposia, seminars, colloquia, workshops, and conventions. Includes cited reference searching across many databases. Search all databases in Web of Science (includes Medline and BIOSIS, direct link for on-campus users). Dates of coverage: 1965 to present.
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Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Multidisciplinary - good for nearly all subjects. Scholarly and trade journals, popular magazines, newspapers, conference proceedings, book reviews, and more.
Use Search.Libraries to find books, journal articles, scores, audio, video, and more—all from a single integrated starting point.
To find scholarly articles in Search.Libraries, you can:
- Apply the Articles pre-filter before searching
- Filter results by Resource Type > Articles
- Filter results by Availability > Scholarly & Peer-Reviewed Journals
All About Scholarly Articles
1. Read The Abstract
The abstract will give you a general understanding of the article. Also, pay attention to the authors and their titles.
2. Read The Conclusion
The conclusion will summarize the author's findings including ways of improving the research.
3. Read The Introduction
The introduction will set up the layout of the article and the main argument of the article.
Tip #1: Highlight important ideas.
4. Read The First And Last Sentence Of Each Paragraph
The first and last sentence of each paragraph will give you a brief understanding of the discussion.
Tip #2: Take notes on the margins.
5. Read The Rest Of The Article
After getting a general idea of the article, read the entire article to get a full picture of the author's argument.
Tip #3: Repeat steps one and two.
Original
An article that reports on original research such as an experiment, or analysis of data, a creative work, phenomena, or historical event.
Review
An article summarizing the results of many original articles investigating similar topics. May use analytic techniques such as meta-analysis to statistically compare data from multiple studies.
Tip #1 - Many scholarly journals, especially in the Humanities, also publish book reviews of scholarly books. These are not the same as review articles!
Theory
An article intended to contribute to the theoretical foundations of a field, providing explanations for phenomena and frameworks that can be used to guide the analysis of evidence.
Both scholarly and peer-reviewed articles are written by experts in academic or professional fields.
Scholarly articles are published in journals for specific academic disciplines. Many scholarly journals are also peer-reviewed.
Peer-reviewed articles been submitted to reviewers who are experts in the field. Because the reviewers specialize in the same scholarly area as the author, they are considered the author’s peers (hence “peer review”).
Both scholarly and peer-reviewed articles are excellent places to find what has been studied or researched on a topic, as well as find references to additional relevant sources of information.
Articles
Articles are works of writing published in serial or periodical publications; this includes scholarly and peer-reviewed journals, but also trade publications, newsletters, magazines, newspapers, blogs, and more!
Scholarly Articles
Scholarly articles are written by experts in academic or professional fields, and are published in journals for specific academic disciplines.
Peer-reviewed Articles
Peer-reviewed articles are scholarly articles that have been reviewed and vetted by experts in the field. Because these reviewers specialize in the same scholarly area as the author, they are considered the author’s peers (hence “peer review”).