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Midwifery: Find Journal Articles

Introduction to Find Journal Articles

Where do I start?

Before you go on to a database, you need to prepare your search strategy. Use the Search Strategy Worksheet and Search Strategy Tips in the left column to help you make your search fast and effective.

I have my keywords and prepared my search strategy, what next?

In the middle column you will find a list of databases useful for your research, look out for the Best Bets for key databases. 

Does every database work the same?

Databases are laid out in different ways, have a look at the How to Guides for key databases in the right column.

Search Strategy Worksheet document

Search Strategy Tips

Tip 1: Think of your keywords and use AND to link them

It is important that you don't just search for a whole sentence or question and instead think carefully about what are your most important keywords

e.g. Discuss methods of achieving success at university

Your keywords would be success AND university

Tip 2: Come up with alternate keywords (synonyms) and connect with OR

The database will just search for the keywords you enter into the search box, therefore you need to think about all the different ways something might be described 

e.g. university may also be described as "higher education" OR college OR "educational institution"

Tip 3: Use quotation marks when searching for phrases

In order to keep two or more words together as a phrase, enclose them in quotation marks

e.g. "higher education" will look for the phrase "higher education" rather than individual words, "higher" and "education".

Tip 4: Use Truncation for words that start the same but may have different endings

A number of databases allow you to use the asterisk symbol * to save you time

e.g.  manag* will find manage, manages, managed, managing, management etc.

 

Discovery

Library Discovery Search

Search includes books, journal articles and e-resources

Library account login

Guide to searching with Discovery

 

A-Z Databases Midwifery

Full Text Databases generally provide the pdf for articles in your results list. However these databases also contain records of articles published elsewhere. You may be able to access these articles by clicking the 360 Link button, provided we have a subscription to the journal they are in.  
An abstract is a concise summary of the contents of an article. It is written using keywords (search terms) so that other researchers can easily find it through database searching. Please note that we may not have a subscription to the full text of the article. If you are final year student or postgraduate, you can apply for an inter-library loan.
Please go here to access the free resources
These databases are available without a subscription and you can continue to use them after you graduate.

Finding Journal Articles from your Reference List

If you would like to find a particular journal article that you have come across on your reading list, etc. you can easily search for this on the Library Catalogue. It is even easier, if you have the reference for this article.

Our reference example above is in Harvard style. However, no matter what referencing style you have in front of you - determining the various components of a reference is a practical skill to possess.

  • You can complete a simple Quick Search on the Library Catalogue - by typing parts of the journal article and/or the author's surname in the second search box. This box is connected to several journal databases, called "Discovery Service".
  • You can also try looking up the journal title on the Journals tab in the Library Catalogue - working your way to the article by selecting the correct publication date, volume number, issue number and page number range.

Please see the help guide below for detailed information on finding a journal article or journal.

Freely Available Databases

You do not need a LSBU username and password to access these databases:

Search multiple EBSCO databases

A number of our databases are provided by EBSCO, this means you can search them simultaneously.

 

Trouble Accessing A Resource

Getting an error message when you try to access our e-resources? You may need to try a different browser (Chrome, Firefox, IE) or device, or clear your cache.

If you are unable to access one of our journal articles, e-books, or other online resources, you can contact our e-Resources Team who are able to assist. Alternative links will be available for a select number of resources when service issues occur.

Email details of the item you are trying to access along with a screenshot of any error messages to: llreres@lsbu.ac.uk