Searching Databases & Finding Peer-Reviewed Articles

Need help? Contact the Center for Research and Writing. We can help you find peer-reviewed publications on the library's databases.

You will sometimes find peer-reviewed articles when you search on Google. You may only be allowed to read the abstract (a summary) of the article for free. Publishers of peer-reviewed articles often charge lots of money for full-text access. However, as a KSC student you never have to pay for full-text access!! The library can provide you access for free through our databases or through inter-library loan.

Search Library Databases

• Sort the A to Z list by subject to select the best databases for your subject.

Find Peer-Reviewed Articles through the library's Discovery tool - the "Google" for the Library. Discovery searches for a little bit of everything - Articles, Books, EBooks, Movies, etc. Search Discovery on the Library's Home page.

Peer-Reviewed Articles on Google Scholar

https://scholar.google.com/

Searches for articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. Full-text not always available for free.

• Connect Mason Library to your Google Scholar account to get FREE access to materials that you would otherwise have to pay for - see this handout (You may have to use Inter-library loan).
• Search Tips for Google Scholar https://scholar.google.com/intl/en/scholar/help.html

Off Campus Access to Library Databases

Handouts & Worksheets

• Worksheet: Introduction to Searching Databases
• Guide: Getting Started with Research
• Using Boolean to Search with your keywords