Election Research: Subject Guide: Articles

Use the following tutorials to learn more about how to locate articles in journal and other periodical sources.

  A peer reviewed journal article is an article that has been reviewed and chosen for publication by the author's professional peers. These peers are scholars in the field, who sit on the editorial board of a journal which is usually published by a professional organization or a university press. Peer reviewed articles can also be known as scholarly or refereed articles. 

 Try the Library's new Discover Search.

Discover searches across most of the library's databases and holdings using one simple search tool.

Advanced Discover Search or use the search box below.

Another option is to search Google Scholar, which will search for citations to articles in scholarly journals. When used on-campus, Google Scholar will provide you with links to the full text of articles in scholarly journals to which the library maintains a subscription.

Need to locate an online version of an article for which you already have the citation? Try the library's

Citation Linker

To use:

• Enter as much information as you have about the article (title, journal name, volume, issue, etc.) into the form and click GO.
• From the resulting page, click on the name of the database which includes the year of the article you need.
• Follow the available options to locate the article.

1.  For off-campus access, enter your Campus ID and Password at the prompt.

2. Use the Advanced Search option within the database you are using to achieve the best results.

3. Keep your search terms brief and concise.

4. Check your spelling. Library databases do not correct spelling errors.

5. If your first set of search terms doesn't retrieve any results, try using synonyms or alternate terms that describe your topic.

6. You can search for different forms of a word (different word endings of the same word), by typing the first few letters followed by an asterisk. Example:

• politc* will search for politic, politics, political, politicize, etc.

7. Use double quotation marks around two or more words to search as a phrase. Example:

• “election results" 

8. Use the connecting words AND and OR to narrow or broaden your search. Examples:

• voting AND elections - to search for articles that include both terms (narrows your search)
• voting OR elections - to search for articles that contain either term (broadens your search)

9. You can create more complex searches by using the words AND and OR in combination with parentheses. Example:

• "voter turnout" AND (election OR campaign) AND (income OR "economic status")

10. If don’t see a full-text link (HTML full text or PDF), try clicking on the

button to determine whether the article you need is available full-text in another database.  If it is, the Find-It service will direct you to the article.