CJS 485 Conover (Hamilton): Finding Articles

You’ll need to enter your Miami Unique ID and password to access these resources from off-campus.

Criminal Justice Abstracts with Full Text

At the top of the search page, there is a link that says "Choose Databases".

Click that link to add in other databases related to your topic. This allows you to search multiple databases at one time and have results from all of them show up in one results list. Add any database that you feel might be appropriate for your topic.

Some suggested ones are:
International Security & Counter Terrorism Reference Center
SocINDEX

Check the box next to “Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals” to get only articles that are scholarly/peer-reviewed.

If you see links that say “PDF Full Text” or “HTML Full Text”, clicking on those will take you to the full text of the article. Then, on the right-hand side of the page, you’ll see options to:
--download/save the article (blue arrow in the screenshot),
--print the article (red arrows in the screenshot),
--email the article to yourself (yellow arrow in the screenshot), and
--get the citation information for the article (green arrow in the screenshot).

After you click the icon to get the citation, you can highlight, copy, and paste the APA-formatted citation into your document. Always be sure to double-check your copied citations, though. Sometimes formatting, such as italics and hanging indents, aren’t correct. Information is typically in the correct order, but good to double-check that as well.

Use the button to look for full-text!

“And”, “Or”, “Not” (Boolean Operators): Use the words to narrow or expand your search results. For Example:

• “automobiles” AND “accidents” will return results that contain BOTH of the terms.
• “juvenile” OR “adolescent” OR “teenager” will return results that contain at least one of the terms. Useful for words with similar meanings.
• “cinderella” NOT “rock band” will return results that do NOT include the 1980’s rock band, Cinderella.

Use an * at the end of a root word to find all variations of that word. For example, “child*” will search for “child,” “children,” “childhood,” and “children's.”

Brainstorm words or concepts that are similar in meaning and use those as search terms. If you find a good resource, look at the “Subject Headings” or “Descriptors” listed and use those as additional search terms.

Bibliographies/References/Works Cited pages are great ways to find additional resources. You can search the library’s Catalogs and/or Databases.

Need more sources? The Criminal Justice Studies Research by Subject page provides links to other resources, including statistics and websites, that might be helpful for your specific topic.

How to Read Scholarly Materials (tutorial)

Choosing and Using Keywords (tutorial)

Refining Search Results (video)

Evaluating Information (tutorial)