Seven Steps to Effective Research

Step 4: Find Articles

Locating articles on your topic is an effective way to find information about you topic, particularly for obtaining very up-to-date information about timely topics.

Things to remember when using articles:

There are several ways to search for articles at Mesa Community College Library:

Periodicals - Magazines, Journals, Newspapers

When researching a topic it is important to consult periodicals in addition to books.

Periodicals include magazines, journals, trade publications and newspapers. Articles from national newspapers like the New York Times or local newspapers like the Arizona Republic are excellent resources for very recent events such as newly passed legislation, accidents, tragedies, controversial remarks etc. (cf.- Both resources appear in the Newspapers section on our Electronic Resources page.) Depending on your research topic newspaper sources may work best for you.

Journals and magazines are more heavily used for college level research because they provide detailed information about events, issues and ideas. Trade periodicals are often useful for students in occupational programs such as Nursing or Emergency Medicine. It is important to know the difference between magazines, journals and trade periodicals. The University at Notre Dame Libraries and McNeese State University Library offer detailed explanations of the difference between these periodical types. Sometimes the choice of what to use is determined by your instructor's requirements for an assignment.

Periodical Indexes

When looking for periodical articles you should begin with a periodical index. A periodical index is an alphabetical listing by author and subject of bibliographic citations to periodical articles. You can do a subject search using these indexes and identify articles on your topic.

When you have found a citation to an article, you can use the citation to locate the periodical in which it appeared. You may find the periodical:

Print (paper) Indexes to Periodical Articles

Print indexes to journals, magazines and newspapers are available only at the Elsner Library location, on the second floor Index tables. Print indexes are a better resource for articles printed before 1970 , or events which occurred before 1970. Since many web-based databases do not include historical indexing data, they are less helpful for historical research.

Web Based Indexes to Periodical Articles

Web based databases are similar to print indexes but in digital form. They are accessed via the Electronic Resources link from the MCC Library web page. Once at the electronic resources page researchers can select from 30+ databases arranged in a table with 8 sections. Section headings are arranged in 2 columns as follows:

General/Magazines/Journals	Humanities/Reference
Education/Philosophy/Religion	Ebooks and Ejournals
Newspapers	Communication/History/Literature
Business/Careers/Government	Health/Psychology/Science

The order in which the sections are arranged is intended to facilitate effective research. General/Magazines/Journals and Humanities/Reference resources are the first 2 sections so users can begin their research by first identifying good topics and locating background information. In Steps 1 and 2 we mentioned resources that appear in the General/Magazines/Journals section (CQ Researcher) and under Humanities/Reference (Encyclopædia Britannica and Opposing Viewpoints). Good sources for journal articles are Academic OneFile and Academic Search Premier, the first 2 resources in General/Magazines/Journals. Should you need primarily magazine sources for your research the last 2 items listed in the section, General OneFile and MasterFILE Premier, are excellent starting points.

As mentioned above the Newspapers section contains several newspaper databases for researching current events. The remaining sections include links to subject specific electronic resources that support coursework at the college. The section for Ebooks and Ejournals allows the MCC community (especially our MCC Online students and instructors) to research effectively using the full text of electronic books and select electronic journals on various academic subjects.

Tip: View these short video clips from Cornell University's Olin & Uris Libraries on identifying scholarly journals or news sources to distinguish scholarly and popular periodical articles when using the library's electronic resources.

Most of these electronic resources provide bibliographic citations to articles and other information resources. You may perform an author, title, subject or keyword search to find citations, and locate the journal cited.

In addition to citations, most web based indexes provide additional information about the articles. Some include abstracts (a summary or description of the full article). Most provide full text for many of the articles cited. If the article is available full-text, you may:

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Rev 3/08

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