Purpose: This research guide has been developed by your instructor and librarian to help you complete your research assignment

What is a journal?

A journal is an ongoing publication on a specific discipline. Journals contain articles written by scholars.

Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish between a journals approved by your instructor and a magazine that is not approved by your instructor. For example, the periodical titled "American Heritage" is not considered a journal. We recommend you review the journals that are approved by your instructor.

How do I find a journal article?

To find a journal article, we recommend you start using the database called InfoTrac:Onefile. The two basic search methods to use in Infotrac:Onefile are:
 1) subject search strategy and 2) journal search strategy (Please review this tutorial)

SUBJECT SEARCH STRATEGY (search method 1)

STEP 1: Access Infotrac:Onefile.
Go to the Library homepage, Click on "Magazines/journals". Then click on "Infotrac:Onefile

STEP 2: Examine article citations.
All citations of an article contains the following information:

Research tip: Every full text article contains subject headings. Scroll down past the text of an article. Locate the subject headings. A search by subject heading will retrieve more articles. When you search by subject headings, you are searching controlled vocabulary.

JOURNAL SEARCH STRATEGY (search method 2)
The second strategy is to search by journal title.  In Academic:Onefile, locate the search box with phrase "the following journal". Type in the title of a journal _______________________ and press SEARCH (not BROWSE).