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Education: Article Databases

Education, Health & PE, Psychology, Business

General Academic

Using Databases to Find Articles

You can search for journals articles in databases such as the ones listed on this page. Databases are collections of article citations, abstracts, and links to full-text articles. Some databases cover specific academic disciplines, while others are multidisciplinary.

Many of the databases that you will use at SU come from EBSCO, a provider of online indexes and full text.

Recognizing and Reading Peer-Reviewed Articles

Initial Reading

Because they are written by and for scholars, peer-reviewed articles are often challenging to read.

Try approaching the parts of the article in this order:

  1. Abstract: Read it carefully. If you can't understand the abstract at all, the article might not be relevant to your topic.
  2. Conclusion: The author's interpretation of the study's results tells you more about whether this article will be helpful. You may need to move on to another article or adjust your topic in response to what you're learning about the existing research.
  3. Skim the body of the article, paying attention to the headings and figures:
    • Introduction: Understand why the study was conducted.
    • Literature review: Learn how the study fits into the scholarly conversation about the topic and look out for other relevant sources for your project.
    • Methods (or Design): Find out how the researchers collected and analyzed their data.
    • Results (and/or Discussion): Review the information that the study produced.

Full Reading

If you plan to discuss a source in detail, read the complete article from beginning to end.

Read slowly and look up unfamiliar words. Take notes that summarize your understanding of each section. While you read, try to determine:

  • What are the main and sub-questions the study was intended to answer?
  • How credible are the study and its results? Be able to explain your answer.
  • How does the article fit within your research? Does it confirm, challenge, or complicate your own ideas?

Research Methods

Qualitative Research

Qualitative research studies collect descriptive data (mostly words). They use methods such as interviews, focus groups, content analysis, and observation. Surveys with open-ended questions could be used for qualitative research.

Quantitative Research

Quantitative research methods collect numerical data and use statistics to analyze that data. Experiments, analyses that look for relationships between sets of numerical data, and surveys with limited, pre-determined responses are examples of methods that could be used for quantitative research. 

Mixed Methods

Mixed-methods studies combine both kinds of research methods to gather both qualitative and quantitative data.