AADS 4270 - Research Methods

Finding Sources

Keyword vs. Subject Searching

Step 1:  Start your search process by brainstorming a list of keywords that describe the main concepts of your topic or question.

Step 2:  Use these keywords for your initial searches.

Step 3:  Use the Subject Heading links in the Library Catalog record to refine your search.

You could potentially find information on the study of Africans, African-Americans, and people of African descent in  almost any article database/search engine. 

For example if you are interested in health issues in the African-American community you would want to use a health/medical database such as PubMed. If you were studying religion practices across African cultures you would probably want to search a religion database such as A.T.L.A.

https://browzine.com/libraries/519

(PCs and Laptops)

thirdiron.com/download

(Mobile Devices)

BrowZine is an app for tablets and smartphones that delivers and lets you browse, read, and save articles from thousands of the library's journals in one newsstand. BrowZine is compatible with iOS and Android tablets and smartphones. BrowZine can now be used on your laptop or computer as BrowZine Web.

 

With BrowZine, you can:

  • Browse journals by subject area and across disciplines
  • Create your own personal journal bookshelf
  • Download articles in full-text in a uniform format, without having to search multiple platforms for what you need
  • Save articles for offline reading, export to services Zotero and Mendeley
  • Get alerts when new articles appear in your favorite journals

 

Google Scholar provides access to "peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations."

What Google Scholar does not contain, in most cases, is the fulltext of the articles -- but it does work with the library's Findit@VU service to help you get to the fulltext when available.  If you are on campus, Findit@VU will automatically appear -- but if you are off campus it won't.   Not clicking on Findit@VU may lead to you receiving a message indicating that you must purchase the article to view it. 

Bookmark this link as your access point to Google Scholar to ensure that the Findit@VU links appears in your searches or follow the instructions for setting your preferences in the video below.  Don't get caught paying for articles when you don't have to!

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