HIS210 - Africa from Colonialism to Independence (McEntegart Library): Find Articles

Journal articles answer very specific questions. Because of this, the keywords you use to search for articles can be more specific than the keywords you use to search for books/eBooks. Limit your search to a few keywords for best results.

Example:

If I'm looking for articles on the Kikuyu, some keyword searches I may try in the catalog are:

• Kikuyu OR Gikuyu
• Kenya
• "East Africa"
• Mau Mau 
• (British OR England) AND Colon*

Search Tips: 

• Use an asterisk * to find word variants (i.e. Colon* = Colony, Colonies, Colonial, Colonialism, etc.)
• Put your keywords in quotes to search for an exact phrase (i.e. "Gold Coast")
• Mix & match keywords to yield different results!
• Struggling to come up with keywords for your search? Try looking for your topic in Credo Reference to get some ideas!

Primary Source Databases

Looking for primary sources?! Click the link below to search through our primary source databases:

Suggested Databases

Try searching for scholarly, peer-reviewed articles on your topic in one of the databases below:

Database Search Tips:

• Keep in mind, not all database results are from peer-reviewed journals!
• Apply a limiter to your database search to narrow down to peer-reviewed articles.
• Lookup the journal title in ProQuest's Periodical Source Evaluation tool or online to determine if it's peer-reviewed.

Using Discovery to Search for Articles

• From the Library's homepage, use the Discovery search box in the middle of the webpage to look for articles. 
• Type in your keywords in the "Search Term" search box.
• Under Choose Format, select Articles from the dropdown menu. This will narrow down your results to just articles.
• Click the "Go" button to perform your search.

Narrow Down Your Discovery Results

• Once you perform a Discovery search, you will find a list of limiters under the "Search Tools" menu on the left-hand side of your results list.
• Under the Content heading, you'll see a few checkboxes. Check off the following boxes:
  • Full Text
  • Peer Reviewed

• Under the Language heading, check off the box for English to filter out articles written in foreign languages.

Peer-Reviewed Articles

What is peer review?

The peer-review process aims to assess an article's quality before it is printed in a scholarly publication. In academic journals, an article that's written by a credentialed author will be reviewed by other experts in the field to verify the accuracy and validity of the research presented. These experts are considered the author's scholarly peers, hence the term "peer review."

How can I identify peer-reviewed articles?

Know the Characteristics of a Peer-Reviewed Article

• Peer-reviewed articles often have the following traits:
  • Abstract - This brief summary usually appears at the beginning of the article.
  • Citations - These can be seen in-text and/or as footnotes, endnotes, bibliographies, references, etc.
  • Scholarly Language - Peer-reviewed articles use technical language written for experts or researchers in the field of study.
  • Credentialed Author - The author is an expert in the field.

Limit Your Database Search

• Most of the Library's databases have a search feature that will help you limit your search results to only peer-reviewed articles. Look for a checkbox using the database's "Advanced Search" that will allow you to narrow down your search to just peer-reviewed articles.
• For instance, if you perform a Discovery search for Articles on the library homepage, you will find a list of limiters under the "Search Tools" menu on the left-hand side of your results list.
  • Under the Content heading, you'll see a few checkboxes. Click on the checkbox next to Peer Reviewed.​

• You can also narrow down to peer-reviewed articles by going to the Advanced Search and checking off the box next to "Only return peer-reviewed articles" and submitting your search again. 

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Examine the Journal

• If you're unsure if a journal is peer-reviewed, examine the information about the publication.
• Enter the title of the journal using ProQuest's Periodical Source Evaluation tool. This tool will tell you if the journal is peer-reviewed.
• Some databases provide journal information that you can access just by clicking on the journal title. For example, in ProQuest, if you click on the journal title, the journal description will tell you if the publication is peer-reviewed.

• If information on a journal is not available via the Library databases, the next best source of information would be going directly to the journal publisher's website. See if you can find information on their peer-review process or author guidelines that outline the procedure for publication.