LibGuides: English 103: Finding Articles

Connecting From Off-Campus

The library gives you free access to hundreds of databases, making it easy for you to find scholarly articles, credible news reports, online books, & more. Most can be accessed from off-campus by following the links on our site & then entering your name & 7-digit College ID.

Not sure what your ID number is? Go to MYCSTATE & use the link for "Look Up Username/Reset Your Cincinnati State Password" to retrieve it. Watch our "Looking Up Your College ID" video for more instructions.

Popular Databases for Research

Below are a few popular databases for starting your research, but you can connect to many more through the library's Databases A-Z guide.

Literary Reference Center
Need help? Watch our Literary Reference Center video tutorial. Information on thousands of authors and their works across literary disciplines and timeframes.

Literary Reference Center is a comprehensive database that provides a broad spectrum of information on thousands of authors and their works across literary disciplines and timeframes. LRC combines information from major respected reference works, books, literary journals as well as original content from EBSCO Publishing. LRC includes:

plot summaries, synopses and work overviews
articles of literary criticism
full text of literary journals
author biographies
book reviews
author interviews
and images of key literary figures

LRC also includes full text of selected classic and contemporary poems and short stories. Full text of classic novels is anticipated by Fall 2006. As reference material, LRC includes full text of a number of literary encyclopedia and guides.
MLA International Bibliography
Index to books and articles published on modern languages, literatures, folklore, and linguistics.

MLA International Bibliography is an index to books and articles published on modern languages, literatures, folklore, and linguistics. Coverage includes literature from all over the world. Folklore is represented by folk literature, music, art, rituals, and belief systems. Linguistics and language materials range from history and theory of linguistics, comparative linguistics, semantics, stylistics, and syntax to translation. Other topics include literary theory and criticism, dramatic arts (film, radio, television, theater), and history of printing and publishing. The MLA Directory of Periodicals and the Association's proprietary thesaurus used to assign descriptors to each record in the bibliography are also included.
Academic Search Complete
Need help? Watch our Academic Search Complete video tutorial. Designed specifically for academic institutions, Academic Search Complete is the world's most comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 5,300 full-text periodicals, including 4,400 peer-reviewed journals...

In addition to full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for Amore than 9,300 journals and a total of 10,900 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc. This scholarly collection offers full text coverage of information in many areas of academic study including: archaeology, area studies, astronomy, biology, chemistry, civil engineering, electrical engineering, ethnic & multicultural studies, food science & technology, general science, geography, geology, law, mathematics, mechanical engineering, music, physics, psychology, religion & theology, women's studies, and other fields.
LexisNexis Academic (Nexis Uni)
Full text news, business, legal, medical, and reference information.

LexisNexis Academic provides access to a wide range of news, business, legal, medical, and reference information from nearly 5,000 sources, most of them available in full text. The service covers newspapers, magazines, wire services, federal and state court opinions, federal and state statutes, federal regulations, and SEC filings. News information is updated daily and wire services several times daily.

Research areas in LexisNexis Academic cover top news, general news topics, and news transcripts; foreign language news sources; company, industry, and market news; legal news; company financial information; general medical and health topics and medical abstracts; accounting, auditing, and tax information; law reviews; federal case law; U.S. Code; and state legal research.
Biography Reference Bank
Biographical information on approximately half a million people, from antiquity to the present.

Biography Reference Bank provides biographical information on approximately half a million people, from antiquity to the present, along with thousands of images. BRB offers substantive narrative profiles, each about 2,000 words long, from H.W. Wilson publications and other respected publishers.

The biographies are searchable by name, profession, title, place of origin, gender, race/ethnicity, titles of works, date of birth, date of death, keyword, and presence of images. Daily updates provide up-to-the-minute coverage of newsmakers.

Full-text articles, abstracts, and images gleaned from thousands of magazines and journals cover new names and expand on existing profiles. Book review excerpts and full text reviews help users find and select print biographies.
JSTOR
JSTOR is an interdisciplinary database of academic journals, most of which are 3-5 years old in nature. This video tutorial demonstrates how to use the Advanced Search for better results.

Search Tips: Articles

“And”, “Or”, “Not”(Boolean Operators): Use the words to narrow or expand your search results. For Example:

“Morrison” AND “symbolism” will return results that contain BOTH of the terms.
”criticism” OR “review” OR “interpretation” will return results that contain at least one of the terms. Useful for words with similar meanings.
”cinderella” NOT “rock band” will return results that do NOT include the 1980’s rock band, Cinderella.

Truncate using the asterisk (hold the Shift key & the 8 key at the same time) to get results that include all possible endings of a root word. Fo example:

"symbol*" will retrieve symbol, symbolizes, symbolism, etc.
"devia*" will retrieve deviates, deviant, deviance, etc.

Brainstorm words or concepts that are similar in meaning and use those as search terms. If you find a good resource, look at the “Subject Headings” or “Descriptors” listed and use those as additional search terms.

Bibliographies/References/Works Cited pages are great ways to find additional resources. You can search by title in the library’s Catalogs and/or Databases.