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First Year Writing: Finding Articles

This guide is aimed at students in FYW 150, FYW 115, and FYW 110. It was created as an introduction to conducting research at the university level.

Google Scholar

Google Scholar allows you to search the web for a variety of written work from a variety of academic sources. Follow the Library Links instructions under Settings to enable Google Scholar to link you to items available through USD. When you access Google Scholar through the link below, that preference is already set.

Google Scholar Search

ILL - Interlibrary Loan

Interlibrary Loan at Copley Library

Enter here to request articles, books, or media.

Circuit will allow you to retrieve books that are available for checkout from Circuit member institutions, but this does not include journal articles.  Use ILLiad to request articles, and be sure to provide as much information about the article as possible.

Multidisciplinary Databases

Check out these academic databases, which cover a range of scholarly disciplines, for starting your research. Many contain journals with full text articles.

Databases for Newspaper Articles and Popular Sources

These are just some of the databases available for finding more popular sources of information through Copley Library.

Peer-Reviewed Journals

Peer-reviewed journals, also known as Refereed Journals or Scholarly Journals, are...

  • scholarly journals with articles that have been critically evaluated and approved by several scholars (expert peer-reviewers) before inclusion in a journal, not just by an editor.
  • reviewed by peers to assess the quality of the methodology, data, and conclusions presented.

Peer review lends credibility to the article because the process confirms the reliability of the data and the findings of the research.


Verify that a journal is peer-reviewed with Ulrich's Periodical Directory