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University Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

How to Find Articles

How and where to find articles using the Library website.

Easy Search

The quickest strategy to start with is to type the article title into the "Easy Search" box on the University Library's homepage. Easy Search searches across multiple databases the Library subscribes to. You can copy-paste the article's title, but be wary of inputting too much information that might cause the search to leave out the article. If the article you are searching for does not come up in the search results, try using the Online Journals and Databases tool.

  1. Begin at the University Library's homepage. Type the title into the Easy Search bar. Optionally, you can select the subject of the article in the dropdown menu next to the search box.

    Easy Search with sample article title entered in the search field
     
  2. Frequently, Easy Search will lead you directly to an online version of the correct article

    Easy Search results with two highlights pointing out where to find article record and full text of an article
     
  3. Further down the page, you can find results for specific databases. That is a good place to check if you do not immediately see the correct article. You will find article record links and full text links in the same format.

Journal & Article Locator

The Journal and Article Locator is a tool that allows you to search for an article given a full citation or most of a full citation.

  1. Go to the University Library's homepage and click the "Databases and Journals" tab. Then select "Journal and Article Locator."

  2. Fill in as much of the citation information as you have.
    Sample search in Journal Article Locator, red highlight indicating that a search must include the journal name or DOI
     

  3. If  we subscribe to the journal that the article appear in and you put in all of the article's information--or use a DOI--you will be automatically redirected to the article.

  4. If the Journal and Article Locator does not have enough information (for example if you did not have a year or volume number to enter) or if the search fails, you will be taken to a Journal and Article Locator Results screen.
    Journal and Article Locator Results page, red highlight indicating to try Article Matches in Scopus and Article Matches in Ebsco first

  5. If there is a link saying "Article Match," check to see if it takes you to the article you are looking for.

  6. If it is not the right article, you will want to find the journal to see if we subscribe to it (this is discussed in the next section).