Databases are extremely useful tools for finding peer-reviewed journal articles, as well as scholarly essays and chapters in eBooks.
Not sure which database to use?
Coverage: 1880s to present
The MLA Bibliography contains detailed bibliographic information on scholarly publications from around the world and across a broad range of topics, including
On occasions, you may encounter problems opening PDFs. The reason for this to happen is most likely due to the time out error. This could be due to a slow internet connection or a large download size. Many times, articles with images contained in them will time out the download.
To resolve this, right click on the link "Proceed to PDF" and select "Save Target As..." (or "Save Link as..." for Firefox). This will allow you to save the PDF to your computer and should allow for a faster, more successful download.
If the problem persists, check the PDF Help Page at JSTOR
To see which titles are available in full-text, as well as the names of all titles indexed and abstracted, check the EBSCOhost Database Coverage List and Title List by Subject . Updated daily.
1995 to date. Updated monthly.
Full text coverage begins in 1994, abstracting begins in 1984 and indexing begins in 1983.
Subjects Include
ERIC is also available via Proquest, OCLC FirstSearch, and at ERIC website with access to full text documents from 1993-present. ERIC consists of two files:
A variety of help options are available:
Subject area coverage: educational specialty—such as technology, bilingual education, health education, and testing. It also provides insight on issues in administration, funding and policy.
Subjects Covered
Guides:
Through a variety of documents such as diaries, letters, photographs, news clippings, organizational records, and journals, it presents a record of the issues that have affected women, societal contributions, social status, and women's movements. The Archive material list provides details about materials included.
Subject Coverage
Coverage: 1970-present
Coverage: 1935-present
The subjects covered represent the entire range of criminal justice topics including: criminal law and behavioral sciences, criminal procedure, corrections, search and seizure, evidence, family law, forensic sciences, policing practices and procedures, quantitative issues and research methods, social science issues and law enforcement, trends and innovations in law enforcement, victims' rights, etc. Coverage: Varies; most titles from 1986 - the present. A variety of help options are available:
Search for articles in OneSearch if you:
1) Have an interdisciplinary, experimental, or very specific topic and are having trouble finding articles in a database.
2) Have a topic in mind and are not sure which database would be best.
3) Know the title of the exact article you are looking for and need to find it.
Note: OneSearch does not search all databases, so you may miss some articles.
GoogleScholar searches the entire web for scholarly materials.
Downside of using Google Scholar:
Upsides of using Google Scholar:
How to get Google Scholar to recognize you are a Cal State LA Student:
If Google Scholar knows you are a Cal State LA student, you will see "Find it @ Cal State LA" links, pictured below.
If you are on-campus, access Google Scholar from the library home page to ensure you are connected to Cal State LA's articles.
If you are off-campus, access Google Scholar from the library home page. If you do not go through the library homepage, make sure you add Cal State LA to your institutions:
Peer-review means the journal publishes articles that have been reviewed by 3-5 experts over the course of 3-9 months.