CUG Libraries - Research Techniques: Beginning Your Research

Finding journal articles using Locate

Locate is the best place to start looking for journal articles. The University Library purchases access to lots of databases full of journal articles, which can all be searched individually, but Locate allows articles from lots of databases to be shown in one place. 

1. Search for the subject you're interested in (something which is likely to be in an article's title or abstract) using the 'article' option.
2. In the list of results, you should see an 'read online' or 'full text available' link. Clicking the link will either open the article directly or open another page for you to click the link from.
3. If you're asked to log in, enter your username @coventry.ac.uk and your usual University password.

Finding journal articles using Google Scholar

You can also search for journal articles using specialist search sites like Google Scholar. These will search for articles across all databases which the search engine can access.

The key benefits of searching on Google Scholar (rather than Locate) is that you may find articles which would not appear in a Locate search, and that the interface is very similar to a standard Google search, so it feels familiar. The downsides of Google Scholar are that the results sometimes contain low-quality or unsuitable articles, and that some articles in the result list cannot be read without paying for access.

Finding journal articles using individual databases

When you are getting started with research we suggest using Locate (so everything is in one place for you), but if you are struggling to find the information you're looking for you might want to try searching databases directly. Databases provide more detailed search options and filters to look through the articles they contain. Databases recommended for each subject are listed on our Subject Guides pages.

Read and re-read the title.
Journal articles often have quite long titles, and commonly include a sub-title which may give more information about the type and scope of research found in the article. There might be unfamiliar technical language or terminology in the title, which you may want to look up if the abstract does not help you parse its meaning.

Look at the abstract in detail.
The abstract provides an overview of what the article's authors set out to do, what kind of research they did to find out more information, and the most important things they found out. The abstract is generally concise but reasonably easy-to-follow, and should give you a good idea about whether it will be worthwhile to read more of the article.

Use skim and scan techniques to read the majority of the article.
There are large parts of a journal article that you will not need to read in detail except for very specific circumstances. There is some benefit in reading parts of the introduction and literature review, but generally it is most efficient to focus on the findings and conclusions of the research rather than the journey which the researchers took to reach them.

Look at the keywords provided and vocabulary used.
There are often several terms or names for substantially the same issue or topic. Databases prefer to categorise these diffuse terms under one label to make it easier to find all articles relating to the topic under one heading. Some databases use industry-standard headings (e.g. MeSH, or Medical Subject Headings) but many define their own. Some journals will also provide their own keywords within each article.

Check the reference list.
Even if the article you're currently reading isn't quite right for your needs, it's worth checking the articles and other materials they referred to in their reference list. There may be another article there which is exactly what you are looking for.

Look at what else the authors have written.
The authors of journal articles are usually specialists in their fields, and will often have written other articles looking at the same general (or very specific) subject area. On most journal databases you can click an author's name to see what else they've written; otherwise, you can just search for them on the database, Locate or Google Scholar.

Who is writing the information?

Ideally, any piece of information used in your assignment can be attributed to one or more named authors. If you can see what qualifications or experience the authors have, this may help you to be more confident that what is being said is accurate.

You can also sometimes attribute information to a company or organisation, as unnamed individuals can be consider to have written information on their behalf. This can be applied to government departments, charities and large companies. Avoid attributing information to a website which is more likely to be the host, or publisher, of information without authoring or editing content (for example social media sites).

If you cannot identify either individuals or an organisation who wrote the content of a webpage, think very carefully about whether you can rely on the information given. Whilst it is possible to cite web sources without an identifiable author if the information provided has clear merit, it is generally preferable to use a source where an author can be clearly identified.

When was the page written or last updated?

The information used to underpin the ideas in your assignments should be current and up-to-date. Internet sources have the potential to be the most up-to-date information available, as there are no delays to publication, but they can also potentially be quite dated, as there is no automatic removal of out-dated content from most websites.

Higher-quality online pages and documents tend to include the date they were written at the beginning or the end of the text. This information is often in the same place as the author's name, sometimes called the 'byline'. Some webpages may also include a 'last updated' date, so show when changes were made to previous content; this can be considered the date of publication when referencing, as information was current at this point.

If you cannot determine when a webpage (or document found online) was last updated, this may be a marker that the information source is lower-quality and cannot be relied upon. Again, it is possible to cite a webpage without a date of publication, but avoid doing so too often.

Why was this information written?

It can be helpful to consider the intentions and motivations for why something was written or created. Whilst this can be complex, and there may be multiple reasons why something was created, there are four key motivations to consider:

1. Is it selling a product or idea?
2. Is it persuading or presenting a point of view?
3. Is it informing or educating you about a topic?
4. Is it written to entertain you?

Ideally, most sources you use in your work should use a factual, informative style. You can still use a source if it's style is persuasive, but you should consider if the counter-argument to the author's viewpoint needs independent research. You can also use content written to 'sell', but should be aware of bias as negatives will be significantly-downplayed or absent.

Phrase your search carefully.
If you only use a few keywords, not considering other ways of phrasing what you’re looking for, you may miss out on useful sources. If you search for too many words (your full assignment question, for example), this can lead to irrelevant results. See the search skills section of this page for more information.

Consider where to search.
Most online searches begin from your default search engine. However, there are lots more options which will find more focused content. For example, if you’re looking for academic-level information, you might want to use Google Scholar, which is focused on journal articles and research outputs, and if you need information from the government, you could search gov.uk directly.

Think about who, when and where.
Before reading a webpage closely, check that you can see who wrote it, when it was written or last updated, and where the information relates to (a city or country, or a topic or sector). Without this information, it’s harder to determine the authority or reliability of the source; it also makes it harder to cite and reference.

Not everything online is a webpage.
Alongside standard webpages, you are also likely to find PDFs of official reports, presentations, visual outputs and other documents designed for internal or public use when searching. Documents often have more credibility than general web sources, but you should verify that they are the most recent version available.

Be cautious with ‘authorless’ sources.
‘Authorless’ content takes two primary forms: sites like Wikipedia, which contain crowd-sourced information with no identifiable writers; and content created by or based upon generative-AI outputs. Whilst useful for establishing the general scope and outlines of a topic, both types of content tend towards overviews rather than detailed analysis, and sometimes contain errors or misinformation.

Look at the use of evidence.
Higher-quality online sources tend to provide evidence to reinforce (or challenge) the information they are providing. This might take the form of citations, a reference list or bibliography, hyperlinks to other sources, or quoting or paraphrasing other experts. If some level of external evidence is not presented, the content of a source is more likely to be unreliable.