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Library Resources for Study Abroad Students : Articles

Library resources for UW-Madison students studying abroad

Find Articles

As a UW-Madison student, you have online access to the full-text of millions of articles, through article databases. 

Use the UW-Madison Library Website to access these article databases.  These databases will ask you to log in with your UW NetID and password.

Why?  Because the UW-Madison Libraries (and you, through your tuition dollars), pay to have access to this content.  These databases want to make sure you're affiliated with an organization that has subscriptions to these resources. 

There are two main ways to search for articles from the UW-Madison Library Website:

  1. Articles Search:  Enables you to quickly search many (but not all) of our subscription databases simultaneously.  Especially helpful when you want to see if the libraries have the full text of a specific article.
  2. Search by Individual Article Database:  Searching an individual database is especially helpful if you're looking for articles on a given subject.

See boxes below for instructions on each kind of search.

Articles Search

Allows you to quickly search many of our subscription databases (but not all) simultaneously.  This is especially helpful when you want to see if the libraries have the full text of a specific article.

  1. On the UW-Madison Libraries homepage, click “Catalog” above the large search box. This will open a drop-down menu.
  2. Select “Articles” from the drop-down menu.
  3. Type your search terms in the box under "Articles" and press "enter" on your keyboard (or click the blue "submit" button).
    • Note: The search may take up to 45 seconds to complete.
  4. Review the results and revise your search as needed.
  5. Click the links next to "View" or "Access" under an article title to get to the full text.

Tutorial on using Articles search.

Search Individual Article Databases

Searching an individual database is especially helpful if you're looking for articles on a given subject.

If you don’t know which database you'd like to search, search for databases by topic:
  1. On the UW-Madison Libraries homepage, click “Catalog” above the large search box. This will open a drop-down menu.
  2. Select “Databases” from the drop-down menu.
  3. Select the “Browse by Subject/Type” link under the search bar.
    1. Select an area that fits your research area. Each subject page contains a list of many article databases, divided into .
      • Core Databases, which contain information closely related to the subject area, and
      • Also Helpful Databases, which are sometimes very specific and sometimes more peripherally related to the subject.
    2. Click a database name to see the time span as well as subjects and types of materials covered in that database.
    3. To use the database, click "Go to this Database" underneath the database name in the search results, or in the upper right portion of the database information page.
  4. OR Click “Introductory Databases” to see a list of introductory databases to search;
  5. OR Click “Top 10 Databases” to see a list of the most popular databases searched.

 

If you know the name of the database you wish to search:
  1. Start at the UW-Madison Libraries homepage, select the word “Catalog” above the large search box. This will open a drop-down menu.
  2. Select “Databases” from the drop-down menu.
  3. Type the name of an article database into the search box and click the blue “Submit” button.
  4. To go directly to the database, click "Go to this Database" under the name of the database you wish to search.  You may be asked to log in with your NetID and password.
  5. For more information about the database, click the name of the database. From the next page, click "View Online" in the upper right to open the database.  

Tutorial on locating article databases.

General Tips for Searching for Articles

Getting Full Text Articles

Follow    (Find It button) or the "Find It at UW Madison" link in most databases to:

  • access online full text (when available).
  • request a free pdf of the article if full text is not available online (Request a Copy).

If you already have a citation, use this Citation Search to search for your article.

Evaluating Articles

Identifying Scholarly Articles (Tip Sheet and Video Tutorial)

Evaluating Sources Tip Sheet

Using Popular Sources (Tip Sheet and Video Tutorial)

 

Reading Scholarly Articles

Google Scholar

Google Scholar Search

Google Scholar is another potential research tool, whose strength is that it searches specifically for scholarly materials such as the following: journal articles, research reports, dissertations and theses, preprints, technical reports, patents, manuscripts in preparation, working papers and many other document types.

Use the Libraries Website to get to Google Scholar, or use the Google Scholar search box above, and links to the UW-Madison's "FindIt" service will appear in your results list.

Tutorial on Using Google Scholar with your UW-Madison NetID.