If you already have a citation, find the journal (volume and issue) in which the article appears
You can search for journals using the Parkside Library Catalog, but the catalog will only show you what the Parkside Library holds in print format. A better tactic is to search the UWP Periodicals List which, in addition to showing you our print holdings, will also reveal any online, full-text content that is available to UWP students, faculty, and staff.
Imagine, for example, that having read an article about Sokal's hoax, you want to find a book review that was mentioned in the article and listed in the article's References:
Nagel, T. (1998, October 12). The Sleep of Reason. The New Republic, 32-38.
Type "new republic" (without quotes) in the title field of the UWP Periodicals List and click "GO". You will discover that The New Republic is available from 1990 (to the present) through a number of EBSCOhost databases, from 1994 via LexisNexis Academic, from 1988-2000 via ProQuest ABI/Inform, and so on. Clicking on the link to EBSCOhost Academic Search Premier brings up a Find It! Services window. Since our citation doesn't include volume or issue numbers (because technically, it's a magazine, not a journal), we simply fill in the year "1998" and click "GO". Another window opens showing EBSCOhost's online holdings for The New Republic. We select "+1998", then "10/12/98", and on the second page of the results list we find links to the full text of Nagel's article. Ah, instant gratification.
If you are looking for articles on a particular topic, search the databases in that subject area
Suppose you are looking for journal articles that explore the (potential, actual, or nonexistent) value of exercise in maintaining or increasing an adult's thinking abilities.
1. Think about your topic and the terms you are using to describe it. What are some synonymous terms for each of the main concepts and what are some possible terms for the relationships that might obtain between them? Brainstorm a little. If you get stuck, try using a thesaurus.
exercise
aerobics
cardiovascular
calisthenics
weight lifting
workout
(Note that we are presently interested in physical exercise, thereby excluding "mental exercise" (logic and math puzzles, brain-teasers, reading, etc.).
thinking abilities
thinking skills
cognitive skills
cognition
mental acuity
reasoning
ratiocination
relationship
impact
effect
result
2. Do some preliminary searches with some of the terms you've listed. Combine terms with AND, OR, and/or NOT. If two or more words are meant to function as a single term or concept, enclose them in double quotation marks.
In CINAHL, this search:
exercise and "cognitive skill"
produces exactly one result. What's more, this single result is not relevant to our inquiry. Searching is not an exact science. Experiment freely, but thoughtfully.
This search:
exercise and cognition
is more fruitful, producing 360 results. Now we can narrow these results, by adding "adult" to our search.
exercise and cognition and adult
leaves us with 98 results. When you notice a title that looks promising, click on it. The Citation view includes major and minor subject terms and an abstract. If, after reading the abstract and the subject terms, you decide that the article is relevant to your project, these fields will probably be rich with additional vocabulary that you can use to refine your search or to construct new searches. Mine those fields. Also mine the References that appear at the end of the scholarly articles that you consider the most relevant to your topic.
3. Try your searches in other appropriate databases. No single database covers everything.