Research Guides: MATH 100: Symmetry: Finding Journal Articles

What is a database?

Library databases contain journal articles and other scholarly information. Sometimes they contain the entire journal article, and sometimes only an abstract. Databases are searchable by subject, keyword, author, and more. They can be seen as the tool you use to search and access scholarly publications, such as peer-reviewed journal articles.

Best Databases for MATH 100

Academic Search Complete
Multidisciplinary database of journal articles (including peer reviewed), books, book chapters, reports, conference proceedings, etc. Coverage: 1887-present.
Google Scholar
Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines.
ProQuest
Collection of databases devoted to disciplines in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. See titles of individual databases for further information. Coverage: Varies by database.
JSTOR
Multidisciplinary full-text journal articles from 1,500 major journals. Please note: In many cases, JSTOR does not include the most recent 3 to 5 years of these journals. Please use other databases to retrieve recent articles, especially for current events topics. Coverage: Varies by title. Access is available to 2007+ alumni; requires W&M userid and password.
MathSciNet (via EBSCOhost)
Mathematical sciences. Reviews of journal articles, books, and conference proceedings. Coverage: 1940-present.

How to Access Articles

You may notice that the database doesn't always provide you with a PDF of the article -- sometimes it will just give you an abstract. In that situation look for the "Find it @ W&M' button, which will take you back through our library website to get you access to the article. If it's something that we don't have, you can request it by interlibrary loan. They'll send a PDF of the article straight to your inbox, typically within a few days!

Not finding anything?

Try a different database! You can find our full list of library databases on Swem's website.
Try different search terms! Not finding anything for 'Sugar'? What about 'Sucrose' or 'Glucose'?
Ask a librarian! You can make a research appointment for some one-on-one help, chat with us when the research desk is open, drop on by for a visit, or even shoot us an email. We love to help!

Librarian

James Glosson

Subjects: Mathematics & Computer Science