Philosophy: Articles
Why use articles in your research?
Why use articles?
- You can get more specific information in articles from periodicals (magazines, journals, and newspapers).
- Journal articles are often more current than books.
- The Library’s databases contain thousands of articles from newspapers, magazines, trade journals, and scholarly journals.
- You often cannot access the full text of most of these articles through Google (because the publishers like to be paid!)
Tip for reading articles:
If the article has an abstract or summary, read the abstract to learn what the article is about. If it looks like it might be useful for your research, then read the whole article.
Where are articles in the TCC Library?
Your TCC Library has some journals, magazines, and newspapers in print, but you have access to so many more articles in periodicals that are stored electronically in research databases. The databases on this page are good starting points for finding articles on this topic.
Image source: "Magazines and reading journals" by jackmac34 is in the Public Domain, CC0
How to search for philosophy articles in library databases
This is the library database that specifically collects articles from philosophy journals.
- Religion and Philosophy Collection This link opens in a new window
(Ebsco) With hundreds of scholarly journals, provides coverage of key theological and philosophical resources spanning over 100 years.
Sample search:
Search tips:
- Add keywords into the search box.
- Look at the options on the left-hand column to refine, or narrow down, your search results.
- Click on the article title to view the full record and links to full text.
- Info about the authors, publication or journal title, publication date, and page number range.
- Subjects for the article, which can give you a hint about the focus of the article
- Formats available to read the article.
The databases listed below cover a number of subjects and are good starting points for finding articles for your research.
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
(Ebsco) Periodical database. This multi-disciplinary database covers most disciplines taught at TCC. Most articles are scholarly. - ProQuest Periodical Databases This link opens in a new window
Multiple periodical databases providing coverage of a wide range of topics, with a mix of popular and scholarly sources. Particularly good for current events. - JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Full text of a range of academic journal articles and primary sources. TCC's collection includes: "Archival Journal / Primary Source Collections." Good coverage of history, sociology, anthropology, literature, and economics.
Search tips and sample search:
In these larger and more general databases, here's a tip to keep your search focused on the topic of philosophy. Doing this should help prevent producing a long list of articles that have the very common word "philosophy" somewhere in the text of the article. Use at least two search boxes, as you can see in the sample search below:
- In the first box, type the word philosophy
- Use the drop-down menu to choose the "Subject" or "Subject terms" field
- In the second box, type the word(s) for your specific topic, such as vegetarian, individuality, reality, etc.
- Keep the drop-down menu on its default setting.
Need more?
- Complete List of TCC Library Research DatabasesClick here to view all of the research databases available at your TCC Library
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