Tips on Finding Articles
In order to find articles in a database, you must effectively communicate your information need to the database.
General Guidelines:
-
Keep your first search simple
-
Avoid using long phrases, sentences, or sentence fragments
-
Use quotes (" ") to search for a specific phrase (for example, "substance abuse")
-
Use the search operators built into the search form (AND, OR, NOT)
-
Read and use the subject headings assigned to articles, etc. for a particular topic
This guide is designed to help you find sources for your paper assignment, on an issue or topic related to substance abuse found in a common lay public or 'popular' source (“.com” website, YouTube, advertisement, or popular magazine, but not a news source).
In order to analyze and discuss the claims and ideas in the popular source, use scholarly information sources, including researched and peer-reviewed journals, government websites, and other professional sources (again, not news sources) as outlined in the paper assignment/rubric.
To find and select your scholarly sources, work your way down this page, trying different strategies in different resources, using terms and concepts taken from your original source. There is not a single strategy that will work for all topics, so be flexible and try searching several resources. On this page and on the other two pages, you'll find some helpful videos and tutorials on how best to search, but if you get stuck and need help or have a question, contact us using the Ask now chat or the Ask Us email form. A librarian will get back to you within 24 hours, Monday - Friday.
Recommended Library Databases
These databases are good ones to use, too.
- Academic Search UltimateOur largest interdisciplinary database, ASC indexes over 13,200 publications, including magazines, monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc. More than 13,000 publications are full-text and 9,000+ are peer-reviewed journals. 1887 - present.
- Health Source: Nursing/Academic EditionProvides access to 550+ scholarly full text journals, most of which are peer-reviewed. Includes the AHFS Consumer Medication Information, which covers 1,300 generic drug patient education sheets with more than 4,700 brand names.
- PubMedPubMed, a free National Library of Medicine database, includes over 27 million citations for biomedical articles back to the 1950's.
Goverment Sources
Government sources provide statistical information as well as other vetted infomaiton.
Try using the websites listed below, or identify others by doing a Google search, limiting to .gov domain, as shown here.
Bonus tip: Click on Tools to limit by date range and get more current info.
- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)SAMHSA, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, seeks to reduce the impact of substance abuse and mental illness on America's communities. Try searching Publications and Data for information.
- National Institute on Drug AbuseResearch and information from the National Institutes of Health
- Illegal Drug UseU.S. data from the National Center for Health Statistics