VAHI 111: History of Global Architecture I (Stein)

Academic Journals are professional publications containing articles about a certain field of study written by experts. Articles published in these journals are typically peer reviewed, meaning they are read, edited, and eventually approved by other experts in the field. These articles are an example of a scholarly resource, since they are written and reviewed by experts and published in respected academic journals. 

When you're using databases, you want to use keywords to search for materials related to your topic. To develop keywords for a search, think about the topics you want to explore - you might try searching a book title and some of the major themes within the work, or an author and reviews or commentary to see what other people think of their work. Lets say your project is about the book Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Leguin. Here is a list of keywords I might use to find journal articles on that topic:

Left hand of darkness, science fiction, ecology, feminism, environmental science, critique, commentary, Hainish Cycle, violence, anti-violence.

You can search for these terms individually or try combining them for more refined results. Try using search terms like AND, OR or NOT.

If I use the terms "Ursula K. Leguin" and "Left hand of darkness" and "criticism" I will get results that contain all of those search terms together.

"review" OR "criticism" and "Left Hand of Darkness" will bring up results that include the book title as well as either review or criticism or both words together.

Use NOT when you want to exclude a word or phrase.

Here are some general tips to guide you in choosing your search terms:

• Use concepts and other nouns as your keywords.  Think of words that are likely to be used in titles (or that you have seen in titles).
• Spend some time brainstorming keywords and search terms. Use the subject headings/tags in each database to help you think of search terms. For example, if you search for "Left Hand of Darkness" and feminism, the subject headings might also contain words like Femininity, Masculinity, androgyny, etc. 
• Use an asterisk * after the root of a word to find all forms of a word. For example, a search for review* will find sources that use not only the word review but also synonyms like critique or commentary.

Bonus Tip:

When you find a good article, look at its References or Works Cited list. That will often lead you to other useful sources. You can also look at information such as the name of the journal or the author for ideas of other ways to search.