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GEOG 101: Introduction to Human Geography (Spring 2024) : Find Articles

Selecting and Searching Databases by Subject or Type

Databases search option

You can access databases from the library home page (library.wisc.edu). Use the dropdown menu at the Catalog button to navigate to Databases

There are several ways to browse and select databases: 

1) Search by the title of the database (for example, 'Academic Search').

2) Use the Browse by Subject/Type page to discover databases to literature that cover your research topic.

3) Visit the Top 10 Databases page to quickly access a selection of popularly-used databases. 

Here are some suggested databases to search.

Getting to the Full Article

Follow  Check Find It for availability. A new window will open... (Find It button) or the "Find It at UW Madison" link in most databases to:

  • access the full article (when available)
  • determine if the journal is available in print (Library Catalog)
  • request a copy of the article (PDF) if the full article is not available online (Request a Copy link)

If you already have a citation, use the Citation Search to find the full article.

Search Tips

  • Use AND to combine different words to find all those words, in any order.
    • "fast fashion" AND geography 
  • Use OR to combine similar words or phrases to find either of the words or phrases.
    • apparel OR garment
  • Use quotation marks to find words as a phrase
    • "global apparel industry"
  • Use an asterisk ( * ) to find varied ends of words .
    • geograph* will find geography, geographic, and geographical
  • Try searching for terms in publication title.
  • Review "subject headings" or "descriptors" to identify additional and useful search terms.
  • Apply limits or filters to your results (by date, document type, or other). 

Understand the Peer Review Process

Scholarly articles undergo a peer review process before they are published. This means that experts in the field are invited by the journal editors to review the quality of the article, and make suggestions for improvements before publication. 

This video explains the peer review process: