SOCW251 (Social Welfare Policy & Service): Find Journal Articles

APU has close to 100 databases to assist you in your research. Most of these databases will help you find journal articles. However, there are many more types of content that you will discover in these databases, such as streaming music (Classical Music Library), electronic books (EBSCO eBook Collection), art images (ARTstor), just to name a few.

To access the databases...

• Go to the library website and click "All Databases."
• For databases relevant to social work, click on the drop-down list of databases by subject or major, and then click on "Social Work."

The following databases will provide you with journal articles, book reviews, and more in the areas of social work, education, and psychology.

The subject-specific databases listed in the Social Work Databases section are the best places to start searching for social work materials, but you will probably also benefit from searching in some of the multi-disciplinary databases. Here are a few that I would recommend:

If you've started your research by looking for library resources in the online library catalog, you can often use the subjects you've found in the journal article databases (see Finding Library Resources by Subject). In the example below, 'human trafficking' (a subject found in the catalog) was entered as a subject search. On the right, you see a list of subjects that the database uses - 'human trafficking' is in that list.

To narrow your results list, try something like the following example:

In the example above, I started with "no child left behind," and got several thousand results. I added the terms in the second box to narrow the results to only those articles that have to do with legislation. This still gave me too many results, so I added a term in the third search box. So, this search gives me articles on 'No Child Left Behind' that have to do with legislation in the state of California.

Search Tips:

• Use one concept per search box - most of the time, you'll only need to use 1 or 2 search boxes
• Connect synonyms and related terms with the word, 'OR'
• Start simply, and add additional terms or limits only if you need them 
• Keep your search terms to only 1 or 2 words, if possible
• Put phrases in quotes
• Use an asterisk to get word variations - your results will have words that start with the letters before the asterisk (i.e. legislat* will retrieve results with the terms legislate, legislates, legislation, etc.)

As with finding news articles (see 'Finding News Articles' box on this page), in most databases you can limit your search to scholarly articles at the beginning of your search, or when you already have a results list. 

Before you enter your search terms, look for a way to limit your search to only scholarly/peer-reviewed articles, as you see in the example below.

You might also be able to narrow your results list to only scholarly/peer-reviewed articles if you didn't do it at the beginning of your search (see example).

Most journal article databases contain a combination of scholarly and non-scholarly resources, and you will usually be provided with a way to limit your results by resource type. Here are some tips to help you narrow your results to non-scholarly (news) resources:

Many databases, especially multi-disciplinary databases (see 'Multi-Disciplinary Databases' box on this page), contain articles from newspapers. You can usually limit your results before you search by looking for some sort of 'limit your results' section. Here's an example:

Or, you can look for an option to limit your results after you've already done a search and have a results list. Here's an example:

One other option is to use LexisNexis Academic. This database is one of the best sources of news. Use the 'Search the News' box to find news articles (see graphic below).

There are usually a couple of scenarios in which you find yourself needing to know if APU Libraries can provide you with a particular journal article: 1) you found a journal article listed in a bibliography, or a syllabus, or elsewhere, and you'd really like to get it, or 2) you're searching in one of the many journal article databases, and you find an article in the results list that you want, but you don't see a full-text link. In the first case, a tool called 'Article Finder' will be helpful, and in the second case, the 'Full Text Finder' links will assist you.

Have a Particular Article You Want to Find? Use Article Finder!

When you want to know if APU Libraries can provide you with a particular journal article you have citation information for, Article Finder is the tool for you. Follow these steps:

1. Go to the library website: http://www.apu.edu/library/
2. Click on the 'Articles and Databases' tab, and then on the 'Article Finder' link (see graphic below). 
   
   
   
3. Type in at least the journal title (or ISSN), volume, issue and the article title, and click 'Search' or 'Go.' More information is good, too. If you have a DOI, no other information is necessary.
4. If the article is available in full-text for you to read online, you will be taken to a page displaying linked options for full text availability for the article and you can follow the link(s) to your database of choice when any such options are displayed and then find the article. [Note: This functionality may change with our new library system in 2022.]
5. If there are no full text listings, this means that it isn't available in any of our databases nor in our print holdings. You will see a form with most of the citation filled out. Fill out any other citation information if necessary, and submit the form. You will receive the article in your email within 2-10 business days if it's available from our partner libraries. See the interlibrary loan services section of the library website. 
6. If you are having problems using Article Finder, or if you're interested in simply checking to see if APU has a particular journal title, use the search box on the 'Journal Titles' tab. As opposed to Article Finder which takes complete citation information, Periodical Finder only requires the journal title to be inputted to check holdings.  If we have that journal in our databases, you will see a "virtual shelf" listing of the volume numbers available and you can click on the volume link and then use "search within" to find the needed article. 

Found a Great Article in a Database but No Full Text? Use Full Text Finder!

Before following the instructions below, note that not all of our databases will have Full Text Finder links (but most will).

1. When you've performed a search in one of the journal article databases, and you have a list of results, you'll eventually start noticing that some results will have a full-text link (which means you can access the article online), and others have a Full Text Finder link (which means the database you're using does not provide access to the article online): 
2. Click on the Full Text Finder link. You will be taken to a page listing links to possible options for finding or requesting the full text of the article, including:  Full Text - APU Licensed Resources (when it's available in any other databases) and ILL/Interlibrary Loan for APU patrons that has a link to a form so that you can request it via our ILL team - fill out any additional information, submit the form, and you should receive the article by email within 2-10 business days.  Additional groups of Browse options by journal title, author or article can be found there as well that can be pursued to try to unearth full text, but the most useful are the above-mentioned APU Licensed Resources (which sometimes includes Open Access as well), ILL services or searching APU's catalog to determine if we have the journal (and the volume and issue needed) in our print collection and then go to the library and make a copy or scan of it.