There can be more than one way to get the information we need. To find journal articles we can go for both Google Scholar and library databases. However, search results can vary depending on the coverage of sources and their searching mechanism.
Understanding the difference among these platforms can help you choose where to go when you have a specific research need.
You can search for scholarly articles in OneSearch as well. You may search by keywords or title of the article.
Watch this video to learn how to find and access articles in OneSearch:
You may also refer to the steps below:
To search articles in Google Scholar, we suggest that you access Google Scholar via the Library homepage, especially when you are out of campus. By doing this you will be able to directly access the full text of the articles (we subscribed to) through PolyU eLinks.
Follow the steps below:
You may also change the setting in your Google Scholar to link it up with Library subscribed databases. This is identical to clicking on Google Scholar@PolyU via Library homepage.
Searching within a database helps you narrow your search as the coverage of the database can be very selective. Some databases focus on one specific area, which can help you filter out the contents that are not relevant to the subject; some may cover peer-reviewed journals only, to ensure the articles covered are of certain quality. Almost all databases will provide an Advanced Search option, which allows you to search in a more precise way, e.g. search within article title, journal title, or subject terms (that are tagged to each article). This helps you find the most relevant results quickly and effectively. Browse list of databases below:
Note that login with NetID is required to access the following databases off campus.
Follow the steps below to find an article in one specific database:
Most databases allow to refine search results by Year, Author, Subject Area, Document Type, etc. or sort results by Relevance, Date of publication, Citation counts, etc. These all help you quickly locate the articles you desire.
To find the full-text PDF, click on PolyU eLinks. This will link you to the options where full-text is available.
Web of Science and Scopus are two large multidisciplinary citation databases. They do not provide full-text articles, but they are very helpful for exploring related articles by looking at citing articles (who cited the article) and references (who have been cited by the article). If you do not have an idea of which databases or journals to go for, you may start with these two.
Sometimes you may be unable to get the full text of a journal article because the library does not have a journal subscription. In this case, you can request a copy of the article via our Interlibrary Loan (ILL) service.
Details can be found at the below guide.