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Theology Research Guide: Finding articles

Articles

Journal of Religion

To find articles that have appeared in journals or magazines, you will use databases.

Databases are searchable collections of citations to articles. They may not contain the full text of the article, but they often contain abstracts. Read the abstract to decide whether the article is relevant to you. Other things to look at when evaluating search results are the journal title, the language, and the year. 

TLU's Theology databases can be found at this page:

Searching by scripture passage

In the Religious and Theological Abstracts database, you can search for articles discussing a particular passage.

For example: Isaiah 55 or Isaiah 55:1-13

Other Databases

In these databases, search using keywords rather than by numbered scripture passage.

Examples of keywords:

Sodom Gomorrah

Ruth Boaz

Abraham Isaac sacrifice

Get articles

Congratulations, you've found a relevant article!  How can you save the citation for later?  How can you get the full text?

Saving the citation

Some databases have some buttons along the right-hand sidebar that allow you to print a citation, email it yourself, generate a formatted citation (always check it for accuracy), and more. You can use one of these, or simply copy down the citation information:

  • Author of article
  • Article title
  • Journal title
  • Volume number
  • Issue number
  • Year
  • Page numbers

Screenshot of EBSCO sidebar

 

Getting the full text

When you find a citation in a database, the full text of the article can be in one of three places.

1.  It might be right there in the database.  You will see a link to the full text as a PDF or HTML document.  Easy!

Screenshot of PDF logo

2.  The library might have access to the article through another one of our databases or in print.  In that case, you will see a blue-and-green "Full Text Through LinkSource" link. Click on it to navigate to the database that contains the article. 

Screenshot of LinkSource logo

3.  The TLU Library might not have access to the article. In that case, you can request the article through Interlibrary Loan.  We will attempt to borrow it for you from another library. There is no charge for this service.  Many articles arrive in less than 24 hours! Some take longer. Click the Interlibrary Loan link to fill out the interlibrary loan request form.

Screenshot of ILL logo