How do I find articles?

Finding articles, news and other current information about a specific subject, company, industry, product or service is a multi-step process.

Step 1

Click on Databases on the main library website then choose Databases by Subject. Look for the link “Finding Articles and News”. Databases in this section contain articles and other types of information such as newswires, reports and other full text publications.

Step 2

Once you have chosen a database, you can search using a variety of techniques. Databases typically allow you to do keyword full text searches or for more precise searching you may search by FIELDS. Searching by FIELDS will allow you to focus your search. Examples are:

Title Field: Viral Marketing

Subject Field: Physician* or Doctor*

Company Field: Blue Cross Blue Shield or BCBS

Author Field: Cooil, B* or Bruce Cooil

Source or Journal Field: Harvard Business Review or California Journal of Management

These examples show you how to find more accurate results.

TITLE: Searching in the TITLE field will frequently provide you with fewer results but those results may be more relevant. The phrase “viral marketing” will only pick up articles with that phrase in the title.

SUBJECT: Searching in the SUBJECT field enter Physician or Doctor since you are looking for either word. When searching by subject, you may wish to try a variety of terms to describe the topic of your search. By including the * (asterisk), you will retrieve both the plural and singular forms of the words. So any reference to doctor or doctors in the Subject field will be found.

COMPANY: Enter Blue Cross Blue Shield by its two common names.

AUTHOR: Search by entering the author’s last name and first initial of their first name followed by an asterisk *. For example, to find articles by Bruce Cooil enter Cooil, B*. By truncating the first name to B* you will pick up any variation of the name Cooil, B or Cooil, Bruce or Bruce Cooil.

SOURCE or JOURNAL TITLE: If you are looking for articles in a particular journal, then you would enter the name of the journal.

ALL TEXT or KEYWORD: This field can be a quick way to find articles if your topic is very new or unique. However, your results for general searches may retrieve too many articles and ones that aren’t as relevant. For example, if you were to enter Marketing and search as a keyword or search the entire text, you would find hundreds of articles where the word appeared somewhere but marketing might not be the main focus of the article.

ADVANCED SEARCHING: You can combine searching in the different fields by using Boolean logic.

Example: If you want to find an article in the Harvard Business Review on Viral Marketing, you would enter the journal title Harvard Business Review and choose the Source or Journal title Field then AND it with the phrase Viral Marketing in the Subject Field. This search will retrieve only articles on that topic published in the Harvard Business Review.

Step 3

Once you’ve located articles that look relevant or interesting, there are several ways to get the full-text of the articles. In many cases, the actual database has links to the HTML or PDF files. In other cases, the database will have little buttons like this: . When you click on these buttons, it will take you to another source that contains the full-text. If the library system doesn’t have the article or journal you need in full-text, they may have print copies of the journals. If the Vanderbilt Libraries don’t have full-text, e-Journal, or print subscription to the journal or article that you need, please ask a librarian for assistance.

For more information about the FindIt@VU service, visit the FindIt@VU FAQ.

Additional Information

• Use of these databases implies acceptance of our Copyright and Licensing Restrictions.
• Need help accessing a resource from off-campus? Take a look at the Troubleshooting Tips page.
• Don't know where to begin? Check out the How do I begin my research? page for information on how to get started researching various topics and use citation information.
• Do you know the name of a database that you'd like to use? Use Databases (A-Z) to locate a known resource and get more information.
• Librarians have created Research Guides (A-Z) on various subjects to help guide you to helpful business or career resources.
• Additional databases are also available through the Jean & Alexander Heard Library.
• Want to browse electronic journals? Check out the E-Journals (A-Z).

Need help? Ask a Librarian for more assistance.