Finding scholarly journals and articles

If you are looking for a specific journal article (electronic articles)

• Use JYKDOK's International e-materials search to find the article, when you already know the title or author. Click the link below the article's name to access the article.

Check the search terms that you worked on in previous chapters. It's a good idea to first do some preliminary searches and then move on to more systematic searches. Keep track of which search terms work and which don't. When you find a relevant article, see what keywords are listed. You can read the abstract to get an idea on what the article is about and how the author talks about the subject.

When you are doing preliminary searches 

• JYKDOK's International e-materials search contains scientific articles and other sources from various publishers. You can do subject-specific searches using the  International e-materials search when you are getting familiar with your topic.
• Or, use Google Scholar.

When you are doing systematic searches

When you need to conduct systematic information searches on a topic, use databases!

• Systematic and specific searches on particular topics should preferably be made in discipline-wise databases instead of using the International e-materials search. Databases offer subject-specific help such as vocabularies and thesauri, age groups, methodology, options to define the publication type etc.
• See Resources by Subject pages to learn about databases in your field.

How to access databases

• Write the name of the database in the JYKDOK search box, if you already know which database you want to use. Otherwise:

To browse databases, choose Search functions (in the blue bar, top of page) > Browse for databases > Research area > e.g. Articles

• Click on the link Database interface to access the database and start searching.
• Most databases contain both scholarly and other sources. You can usually limit your search results to peer-reviewed or scholarly articles.

Google Scholar

• To get more full text options in Google Scholar: log in to JYKDOK with your Jyväskylä university credentials, write Google Scholar in JYKDOK search box, click search and click Database interface. This lets you access Google Scholar through the university network and gives you access to more articles.

Google Scholar is a search engine specialized in scholarly literature.

• Google Scholar searches across different disciplines and sources.
• Please keep in mind that you are not able to limit your search results to scholarly articles or other types of publications, which makes it harder for you to tell which search results are scientific and reliable and which are not.
• Using the advanced search function you can get exact matches when searching for a research article or within a narrow subject matter. See Search tips.

Google Scholar collects information on references to publications, and the more references a publication has, the higher it is on the search results list. The number of references does not simply imply quality, but rather the impact of the article. The number of references can be high e.g. for conference papers that are freely accessible online and that many people have had an opportunity to reference. The number of references affects the ranking in the results list more than e.g. the year of publication.

In addition to Google Scholar, you should use the search services purchased by the library, especially when searching information for theses and dissertations, for the following reasons:

• Some important science publishers have blocked the Google Scholar search robot from entering their databases.
• All publications found by Google Scholar are not scientific and there's no way to limit your search results to scientific sources whereas in many databases you can easily limit your search results to scholarly articles.

Google Scholar is part of Google and is different from everyday Google. Don't use the everyday Google to search for academic sources.

How to find academic journals in JYKDOK

• Use JYKDOK to locate both printed journals and e-journals.
• Write the name of the journal in the search box. You get an automatic drop down menu, where you can choose Journal/Article.
• You can browse journals in your research area or academic discipline. Leave the search box empty, do an empty search and use the filters on the right to choose Format > Journal/Article and Research Area > your research area to browse journals in a specific research field. Clicking on a research area will allow you to choose a subcategory, e.g. Social Sciences > Sociology.
• You can search for journals by subject. Write the subject in the search box and limit your search to Journal/Article by choosing it from the drop-down menu. Note that you'll only get journals where the subject is listed in the journal's metadata, such as title or keywords. This is not the same as searching for articles in journals.
• Printed journals can be located using the location information in JYKDOK. Printed journals are usually for reading room use only. Printed journals may have to be ordered from storage or from Kuopio National Repository Library.
• Please keep in mind that not all journals in JYKDOK are scholarly journals.

How to access journal archives

• After you find the journal you are looking for, click on a link below the journal's name to go to the journal's archive.
• You can usually search for articles within a specific journal when you're in the journal's archive. Use the search within this journal option or something similar, depending on the database.

You can access electronic materials provided by University of Jyväskylä through the university network.

It's easy to use remote access to access the network:
1. Log in to JYKDOK with your university username and password
2. Use JYKDOK to access the information source, such as a database, journal or article.

If the document is not available at Jyväskylä university library, you can order it from another library to have it delivered here. Check in advance how much it is going to cost.