Full text coverage begins in 1994, abstracting begins in 1984 and indexing begins in 1983
Guide
CSA Search Help
A great starting place for any research topic. Includes a wealth of peer-reviewed and non-scholarly articles on a wide range of topics and disciplinary areas.
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.
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
Content includes reference works, millions of news and periodical articles, and more than 5,000 rare and vital primary source documents that range from slave journals to presidential papers. U.S. History In Context is cross-searchable with World History In Context.
It also includes book, film, and website reviews, notes from the archives, and teaching tools. It continues to grow with two new issues/releases annually.
Coverage: 1955-present
Content is aligned with state and national curriculum standards and is cross searchable with U.S. History In Context.
Biography In Context merges Gale's authoritative reference content, including Lives & Perspectives, with periodicals and multimedia. Users can also search for people based on name, occupation, nationality, ethnicity, birth/death dates and places, or gender, as well as by keyword and full text.
It offers authoritative reference content alongside, videos, audio selections, images, primary sources, and magazine and journal articles from hundreds of major periodicals and newspapers. This resource is continuously updated to ensure users have access to the very latest information.
The full text of poems by influential African American poets of the 1900s, including Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, Imamu Amiri Baraka, Audre Lorde, and Rita Dove.
Contains the full text of early African American poems, from the first recorded poem by an African American (Lucy Terry's 'Bars Fights', c.1746) to the major poets of the nineteenth century, including Paul Laurence Dunbar and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper.
Scholarly and non-scholarly articles focusing on art, art history, and criticism from Western and non-Western traditions. Including new artists, contemporary art, exhibition reviews, and feminist criticism.
Sometimes called scholarly, peer-reviewed, or academic, these terms all refer to journals that require review by a group of experts in the field before an article can be published. These experts are looking for things like appropriate methodology, proper research and citations, advancements to the field, etc. These articles are typically for other scholars with a high level of knowledge in the area of publication. The purpose is typically to advance the field of study and share developments made by scholars.
Look for the option in databases to narrow your search by peer-reviewed or scholarly.
Learn more about the process video from the University of Kansas: Peer Review In Three Minutes
Popular articles are written for a general audience. These articles can inform, entertain, give the opinions of individuals, talk about current events, sell products, or generate money. News, magazines, blogs, social media, TV shows, opinion articles, and many kinds of websites fit into this category.
Trade or professional journals are intended to share practice information with professionals and practitioners in a profession. These articles are usually chosen for publication by an editor and not a group of experts. They may also include advertisements and flashy images that you don't usually see in peer-reviewed journals.
When searching Google, you might begin by asking "why do police kill people of color more?" Searching Library databases are a little different, and they don't respond as well to full sentences. Instead, use keywords to search to get the best result.
Keywords are the essential words in your research question that focus on the main concepts you are interested in. Other words are not essential to searching. The keywords are highlighted in the research question below:
Research question: What is the connection between race and police brutality?
Connecting words and other search tricks
Using connecting words like AND, OR, & NOT can help you find what you are looking for.
With Google Scholar, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts, and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities, and other websites.
Be sure to link Google Scholar to the Cal State LA Library to get free access to many library resources.
To access the library resources, click on the links in the right-hand column, like Find it @ CalState LA.
Open-Access journals are journals that do not require a paid subscription to access, and are open to anyone to read.
If you find a journal article that is relevant to you, but the library doesn't have access to, we can get it for you from another library!
Steps to Request: