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**Sociology: Subject Guide: Finding Scholarly Articles

Getting to Articles from Databases

1: Look for a "Full-Text" or "PDF" link that will take you directly to the article. If yes, great. If not, go to #2.

2: Look for the FINDIT @ GSU button. Click on it. If the journal title shows up, click the link to see what the online availability is. If not, go to #3.

3: If you see the "Sorry, no electronic full text is available" message, click the link below it that says "We may have a copy in print."  If yes, go to the library to copy the article.  If we do not have it in print, go to #4.

4: Request the article you need through interlibrary loan - typically arrive within 1 day, so definitely worth trying!

EASY Off Campus Access to Journals/Articles

Install and login to the Cisco AnyConnect VPN (Virtual Private Network) on your computer so that you are logged into the GSU network and will be automatically routed to GSU-subscribed journals. It’s available for download and instructions for using on the following platforms are available here: Windows | Mac | Android | Apple iOS

NOTE: There's a point where the directions tell you to enter secureaccess.gsu.edu as what to connect to.

Cited Reference Searching

Found an incredibly relevant source for your topic?  Do cited reference searches to find researchers who are citing that relevant source - their research might be relevant to you as well, and even more current.

Mining References

Found an incredibly relevant source for your topic?  Mine its references for previously-published sources the authors are citing that might also be relevant to your research.

These databases are good to search, regardless of your specific topic:

  • Academic Search Complete - do a search, then to the left of the results click the Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals to limit your search to peer-reviewed/scholarly journals
  • Sociological Abstracts - click the Peer Reviewed checkbox under the search field to limit your search to peer-reviewed/scholarly journals
  • Google Scholar - To see the fulltext links for GSU: On Google Scholar main page, click the menu icon in the top left of the screen, then click Settings, then at next screen click Library Links, search for Georgia State University, checkbox Georgia State University - FullText @ GSU, then click save. Then when looking at search results, instead of clicking the article title to try to access it, click on FullText @ GSU link to be routed through GSU-access (you might have to click a double-arrow under the citation to see all the options).

Then possibly search these other databases for specific topic areas:

​** The above EBSCOhost databases can be searched simultaneously - Click into one, then, before doing your search, click the Choose Databases link, select the relevant databases for your research topic, and click OK. **

^^^^^We have many more databases than these!

To find other databases to search, check out our A-Z list, other research guides related to your topic, or consult with me (aswygarthobaugh@gsu.edu) about what might be best to search for your topic.

Scholarly vs. Popular Articles Tutorial

Tutorial on strategies for discerning whether an article is SCHOLARLY or POPULAR:

 

Empirical vs. Non-Empirical Scholarly Articles Tutorial

Tutorial on strategies for discerning whether a scholarly article is EMPIRICAL or not: