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Area and Global Studies: African

Find Articles

Databases at UD

Journals give you the ability to search for articles on a specific topic or event. It can be an easier way to find relevant information because you are usually not sifting through a large pool of results. If you visit the E-Journals page, you can bring up a list of all the journals with subject content related to this area or you can narrow down by region. You can also search for a specific journal title from the E-Journals page or in DELCAT.

Tips & Tricks for Searching for Articles

Finding articles within databases and journals is not the same process you would use to conduct a search in Google or an internet search engine. You cannot type in a question, but rather need to choose specific keywords and phrases to find results. These tips are similar to how you would search for material in DELCAT. 

Helpful Ways to Search: 

  • Use quotations around a phrase to "tell" the database or journal that you want these words to remain together.
    • Ex: "American exceptionalism" 
  • Think of synonyms to your keywords...Especially when conducting historical research, you may need to develop words and phrases that were used during that particular time period, rather than modern-day words.
    • Ex: World War I; First World War; The Great War - All would give you different results! 
  • Use AND/OR to connect words, concepts, and phrases together to receive specified results.
    • Ex: World War I AND United States

Use the Advanced Search option in databases and journals to narrow down by date, region, type of document, and more!