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Biology

Welcome to Finding Articles

What to know: Articles are published in journals. Journal contents (articles) are curated and stored in searchable databases. Google Scholar is not a database. Databases do not search like Google.

What you’ll learn: How to build a search and use database tools to search library databases for journal, magazine, or newspaper articles. We'll show you in one database, but most databases work the same way.​  You'll also learn a few tricks for using Google Scholar strategically.

Why you should care: Databases do not use natural language searching (like Google does) - they will only do what you tell them to do.  If your search is well-formed and you use your tools wisely, your search results will be much more useful and relevant!​

Search strategies - build your search

Search using database tools

Using article-level database tools

Citation chasing

Try it! Find an article (or two) about your research question.