Find articles on a topic |
You can access articles in academic journals, newspapers and magazines through our databases, provided you have a current Webster or Eden ID number. To find which database is best for you, see our index of databases by subject, which groups the databases into a variety of subject areas.
Uncertain which database to use?
We suggest you try Academic Search Complete, a powerful multi-disciplinary database with articles in many areas.
Database records
They include basic information about the article: article title, journal title, subject headings, abstract or summary, date, etc.
Many databases allow you to search more than one of these fields at once, which makes for very powerful searching. For example, a keyword search can be combined with an author search to retrieve articles on a topic by a certain author. Or, a subject heading search can be crossed with a journal title search to retrieve items on a topic reported in a particular source.
Notice in the example below that the screen is set to search "default fields". When you search "default fields" or "keyword," you are searching the entire record. The databases may also allow you to restrict your search to a specific field (e.g., title, subject).
Searching
Use a combination of one or two words or brief phrases in your initial search rather than a long phrase or question. If you wanted to find out about rapid melting of glaciers in Greenland and its implications for climate change and projections of global warming, this would be a good way to start:
If you received too many results, you could add a phrase like "climate change" or "global warming" in the third box.
Full Text
Some citations will have a link that says "HTML text," "PDF text," that look like
this. 
If this is present, clicking on the link will retrieve the full text of the article. Other citations may have an Article Linker button like the one below. You may click on Article Linker to see whether we have the article in another database or here in the library (if so, it will say Webster periodicals).
If you don't see an Article Linker link, you can check on the full-text availability of an article by using the Journal/Magazine/Newspaper list. See How Do I Find a Known Article for an explanation of this process.
If the library does not have the article in print or online, you may request a copy by visiting the Request books or articles page. Note that Webster/Eden patrons outside the St. Louis area may also request copies of articles that the library has in print but not online.
Additional information is available on: