Scholarly/Academic sources are items that are written by academics and experts. They are aimed at an audience who are academics, experts, or students. They are not intended for a general audience. Scholarly articles are not necessarily peer reviewed, but peer reviewed articles are always scholarly.
Peer reviewed article is an article that was reviewed by scholars and meets certain standards with regards to a publication or a discipline
Peer reviewed/scholarly articles are typically written by professors or specialists.
Search Tips
Use Boolean Operators such as AND, OR, and NOT with your search terms to expand and limit your search query
AND retrieves records that contain all of the search terms.
OR retrieves records that contain ANY of the search terms, but does not necessarily include all of them.
NOT Excludes records containing the second search term.
Use “quotation marks” to search for a complete phrase:
Use an asterisk* for alternate word endings
We recommend starting your search using DISCOVERY, which searches all of our library's collection, but you may need to consult Article Databases for in-depth and comprehensive research.
Article databases can be accessed from Databases by Subject page. In addition to several general databases that cover many topics, the library's Subject Guides include suggestions for recommended databases and other resources according to specific subject areas.
If you are off campus you will need to login with your NDNU credentials to view articles. See the "Off-Campus Access" page of this guide for detailed instructions.
Search using DISCOVERY from the library homepage or advanced search:
Article Databases search through all different types of articles from scholarly journals to magazine and newspapers. Our library subscribes to both general databases (which search through journals and magazines from many different disciplines) and subject-specific databases (which search journals on specific topics, such as Psychology or History). Databases By Subject page will help you select databases that are relevant to your subjects.
Begin Your Search
The databases you decide to search may look different, but most databases contain a set of several search boxes. Split up your search terms into one word or a short phrase and enter in each box. The drop-down boxes menus next to the search boxes allow you to use boolean operators for even more control.
The default search for most databases is the general keyword search, but you can also search by author, article title journal, name, and subject heading, to name a few. Just use the drop-down menu to select the field.
Refine Your Search
You can refine your results by full-text, peer-reviewed, and date, or by subject term, using the side bar that that comes up on most database search results pages. If you received a small number of search results, you will probably want to retry your search using broader search terms. Subject term provided by the databases can also give you ideas for additional search terms.
Pick an article that looks relevant.
Select an article that looks relevant to your topic. This database record for this article (see image below), will include addtional search terms you can use to search for simliar articles. It will also have an abstract where you can read a summary of the article to see if it will be useful for your research.
Find full-text. If your article has a PDF or an HTML full-text link, then you are all set to go! Click on the link and your full-text will appear.
If there is no full-text attached, write down the citation information and ask a librarian. Or search through DISCOVERY using the "Libraries Worldwide" option. It may be available through Interlibrary Loan (ILL).
