Frequently Asked Questions
Finding Articles
How do I find articles? How do I know which databases to use?
To find an article on a topic, you must first conduct a search in a database.
To select a begin at the UWM Libraries homepage:
- Use Resources A-Z if you already know the name of a database.
- Browse Resources by Subject/Major if you need to find a database that covers the subject area related to your topic.
- Check Indexes by Vendor/Publisher (within Resources A-Z) if you know a popular name of a vendor, such as EBSCOhost.
- You can also test our new Meta Search service, a tool for cross-searching multiple databases at the same time. [More Information]
For help searching databases, see the Finding Articles tutorial.
Searching article databases will result in a list of citations, which provides the information needed to locate articles in print journals, magazines, and newspapers. In addition to citations and abstracts, some databases also provide full-text of articles, which you can view online, print, or e-mail. Some databases, such as Ethnic NewsWatch, GenderWatch, JSTOR, and Project Muse, have complete full-text for all articles. However, most databases have only partial full-text coverage, which means full-text is available for selected journals only. Still other databases provide only citations or citations with abstracts and no full-text coverage at all.
If an article is not available online, you must follow the 
link or search PantherCat (the online catalog) to determine if the library owns the journal in which the article is published.
See getting full text for more information.