Articles are an essential tool for researching literature in English. Articles help you situate your own argument within the scholarly conversation because they are:
When you’re searching for scholarship on a specific work, it’s often easier to find relevant articles than books.
A database is an organized, online collection of information. The most common type of database includes primarily articles, so that will be the focus here.
In many databases, the articles are organized by subject; in such cases, you will see clickable subject terms that you can use to find more on that topic. Many databases also make it possible to search by other characteristics of an article. You may be able to look for articles that have been published after a certain date, peer-reviewed articles, or articles of a particular type.
Although databases allow you to search for information online, they are different from search engines because they include the information that you will find, not just the search box. Because of this, you will have different search results from one database to another, and most of them wouldn't be available from the open Web.
Some databases provide information only in certain, specific fields. For example, you would search BioOne for biology articles and MLA International Bibliography for literary criticism. Other databases, like JSTOR or Academic Search Complete, include information on a variety of subjects.
Besides journal, magazine and newspaper articles, databases can also consist of encyclopedia articles, images from art collections, digitized historical documents, library catalogs, statistical information, or almost anything.
Databases often focus on a particular subject. This means that, as long as you are using an appropriate database, you will find more material on your topic and less irrelevant information. But how do you select the best database? Here are some tips.
Begin by selecting Databases from the Research drop-down in the top navigation menu of the Queens College Libraries homepage.
The library subscribes to almost 300 different databases. By default, they are sorted alphabetically, but you probably don't want to scroll through all of them! In fact, because databases tend to be subject-specific, only a few are likely to be useful to your research. Fortunately, you can filter the databases by subject, so you can readily identify the most useful databases for your topic. For example, if you were writing a paper for an English class, you might select JSTOR or the MLA International Bibliography. For each database listed, you can see the title, followed by a description of the database, the publication dates covered, and the kinds of materials included.
Tip: Library specialists have prepared a variety of subject-specific research guides that describe research standards and practices for each subject studied at Queens College. These guides often suggest relevant databases, which can be really helpful as you get started in your research!
One popular database is JSTOR. This database is useful because:
This database has a few drawbacks, too. Because it's a full-text database, it won't show you every relevant article that exists -- only the ones that you can access. Also, because it's a full-text database, searching by keyword can return some irrelevant results that happen to use your search terms somewhere in the article, even if the article isn't really focused on that topic. For that reason, we recommend choosing very narrow, specific keywords when searching JSTOR.
Tip: Make sure all your search terms are spelled correctly!
When you search JSTOR, you might find an unmanageable number of results. Try searching for articles on Virginia's Woolf's To the Lighthouse, for example. What do you notice about the results?
As you can see, there are nearly 3,000 results! But glancing through the descriptions of the articles, you might notice that many of the articles are from the 1920s and 1930s. Do you think that those articles reflect the most current trends in literary scholarship? (Probably not!) Fortunately, by using the "Refine Results" options in the left-hand menu, we can narrow the results by publication date, or by subject. Try narrowing the results to articles published between 2015 and 2025. You should see a marked decrease in irrelevant results!
You can also "Search Within Results" to further narrow the results.
Tip: The list of "Topics" at the end of the article description is a great place to find key words, and a great place to learn the scholarly vocabulary associated with your topic.
Tip: Pay attention to the title of the publishing journal. In the search described above, for example, one article was published in the journal College Literature, while another was published in Biography. How do you think these two journals differ in their focus? Who do you think the audience is for each of these journals? What kind of specialized knowledge might they assume?
Another popular database is Academic Search Complete:
However, Academic Search Complete does have its downside. You won't necessarily have access to every article listed in the results. However, the Find It! tool will help you locate a copy of the article or order it through Interlibrary Loan.
Try searching using Academic Search Complete. You'll notice that for every result returned, you will be given the title of the article, the author, the publishing journal, the publication date, and usually a brief description (or abstract) of the article. Subject headings follow -- these are a great way to get a sense of how useful an article might be without reading the whole thing! After the subjects, you'll see links to the text of the article, or a Find It! link that will try to locate the article in other Queens College databases.
The type of resource -- such as newspaper article, magazine article, or peer-reviewed academic journal article -- is indicated above the article title.. Unlike JSTOR, Academic Search Complete includes non-scholarly media such as periodicals and newspapers. However, you can select the "Peer Reviewed" option under the search bar to limit search results to only peer-reviewed scholarship. You can also narrow by publication date under the "All Time" drop-down menu.
Tip: Most professors prefer that you use scholarly, peer-reviewed articles, but some will allow sources from the popular press as well. Always be sure to check with your professor to make sure you have a clear understanding of the expectations for the assignment.
Try searching Academic Search Complete again. How many results did you get? Are they relevant? Are they scholarly?
Next, try using the filter options.
What happens when you limit the results to "Peer Reviewed" scholarship?
What happens when you limit the results to articles published in the last ten years?
What happens when you narrow the "Source Type" to "Academic Journals"?