Make an Appointment
Book a research consultation with one of your MSMU librarians!
Email Us - library@msmu.edu
Your question will be answered by a librarian within 24 hours.
Call Us
Coe - Chalon: 310.954.4370
McCarthy - Doheny: 213.477.2750
Drop In
Stop by the Circulation Desk at either library and ask in person.
Library databases are collections of materials on a particular subject. To find database on a particular subject view the A-Z database list.
Search these databases to find scholarly peer-reviewed journal articles, magazine articles, and news on a broad range of subjects.
PRO TIP
If you are looking for scholarly or peer-reviewed articles, most databases have a search limiter you can select to narrow to only scholarly/peer-reviewed. Look for this option to narrow your search, there will most likely be a box for you to check.
Database spanning a broad stretch of academic subjects with thousands of full-text journals, as well as abstracted and indexed journals.
Search across all of EBSCO's databases in a wide range of academic disciplines.
Collection of databases in the following academic disciplines: News & Newspapers, The Arts, Business, Health & Medicine, History, Literature & Language, Science & Technology, and Social Sciences.
Search across all of Gale's databases in areas such as literature, current events, religion, history, philosophy, and health.
Broad multidisciplinary collection of online resources covering life, health and physical sciences, social science, and the humanities. It includes journal articles, online books, reference works, laboratory protocols, and databases.
Virtually all journals that MSMU has full-text access to online are indexed in our E-Journal search. Simply type in the title, hit search, and you will find all the databases where you can access the journal.
If you don't have the full citation, try using Google Scholar to find the article. Check out Google Scholar Search Tips here.
If you cannot find the article using the first 2 steps, we probably do not have immediate full-text access to the article, but that doesn't mean that we cannot get it for you! Try requesting it through Document Delivery.
Articles are usually delivered within 2-3 business days.Library databases don't search using full sentences. Instead, they use keywords and boolean logic.
Your best bet is to use keywords to search to get the results you are looking for.
Keywords are the essential words in your research question that focus on the main concepts you are interested in.
Other filler words are non-essential to the search process.
The keywords are highlighted and bracketed in the research question below:
Research question: What is the connection between [race] and [police brutality]?
Keywords: your keywords and key phrases are then "race" and "police brutality"
Boolean logic is a system that shows relationships between sets of keywords, terms, or subjects by using the words AND, OR, and NOT. In library databases, we use these terms to specify exactly what we are looking for when we perform a search.
The term Boolean comes from the name of the man who invented this system, George Boole.
Using connecting words like AND, OR, & NOT can help you find what you are looking for.
Learn more about keywords and other search techniques with this guide from UCLA: Search Techniques
Sometimes called scholarly, peer-reviewed, academic, or even "refereed', these terms all refer to journals that require review by a group of experts in the field before an article can be published. These experts are looking for things like appropriate methodology, proper research, and citations, advancements to the field, etc.
When searching for articles, look for the option to narrow your search by peer-reviewed, scholarly, or ‘refereed’ materials. There will most likely be a box you can check to limit your search.
Learn more about the peer-review process in this video from the University of Kansas: Peer Review In Three Minutes
Visit the guide below for more on how to: