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Human Development and Family Studies: Graduate Students

Find Journal Articles

If you just need one or two articles try the following general magazine and journal article database:
  • Academic Search Premier
    Index to major journals and magazines in all subject areas. Updated continually. Coverage is 1984 to date. Click on Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals to limit search results to research articles.
For more in-depth research, try searching subject related databases.

Begin at the MU Libraries' Gateway. Select Find a Database

Choose an appropriate subject area such as Sociology or Psychology. Select one of the databases from the list and follow instructions on how to conduct a search. Every database has a slightly different interface, but all have help pages that contain tips and/or tutorials.

Suggested databases for human development and family studies:

  • Education Full-text
    Indexes education journals, 1983 to date
  • ERIC--Provides access to the educational and related literature available in periodicals published worldwide and in the ERIC documents microfiche collection. Coverage is 1966 to date.
  • GoogleScholar
    Search engine for the scholarly literature in all disciplines. Useful for finding cited references.
  • JSTOR--Full-text journal archives providing access from volume one to all but the latest few years of articles. Includes 9 psychology and 67 sociology journals.
  • Lexis-Nexis Congressional--Index to congressional publications (1789-date), an extensive bill tracking service (1989-date), legislative histories (1969-date), floor votes (1989-date), and public laws (1989-date). In addition, full-text is available for the Congressional Record (1985-present), the Federal Register (1980-present), the Statutes at Large (1789-present), Congressional Research Service reports (1916-present) and Committee Prints (1830-present).
  • PAIS
    P.A.I.S (Public Affairs Information Service) covers the range of the social sciences, with emphasis on national and international economic, political, and public policy issues. The database provides indexing to periodical articles, books, federal, state and local documents, agency publications, yearbooks, and directories. Coverage is 1972 to date.
  • PsycINFO
    Indexes and abstracts books, journal articles and technical reports dealing with psychology. Coverage is 1887 to date.
  • PubMed
    PubMed covers international literature on biomedicine, including the allied health fields and the biological and physical sciences, humanities, and information science as they relate to medicine and health care. Coverage is 1953 to date.
  • Scopus
    Indexes journals, conference proceedings and web sites in the sciences and social sciences. Coverage is 1996 to date though earlier material is being added regularly. Useful for finding cited references.
  • Social Services Abstracts
    CSA Social Services Abstracts provides bibliographic coverage of current research focused on social work, human services, and related areas, including social welfare, social policy, and community development. The database abstracts and indexes over 1,406 serials publications and includes abstracts of journal articles and dissertations, and citations to book reviews.
  • Social Work Abstracts
    Social Work Abstracts indexes research articles in social work and related fields. Coverage is 1977 to date.
  • Sociological Abstracts
    Indexes and abstracts journals in sociology as well as books, disssertations and sociological association papers. Coverage is 1952 to date.

Find the Full-text of Journal Articles Find It @ MU button

  • If you're looking at results in one of the databases listed above just click on the Find It @ MU button button next to the article citation. The article will display if it's available electronically. If there is no online access, you'll be given the opportunity to look for a print copy in MERLIN.
  • If you have an article reference, but are not currently in a database, go to the MU Libraries' homepage and select Find a Specific Article/Journal to enter Find It @ MU button. Once in Find It @ MU button you're given the choice to search for a specific article or journal title. If electronic coverage is not available, check MERLIN to see if we have a print copy of the journal.
  • MU Libraries does not subscribe to all journals. If you find a journal article that you need, but cannot find the full-text using Find It @ MU button select the option Request through Interlibrary Loan/Request a Copy.

    You can also request an article without using the Find It @ MU button feature by filling out an article request form which is available from Request Items-ILL@MU under About the Libraries on the MU Libraries homepage. Usually you will receive the article electronically within a few days of placing your request.

Find Statistics

  • Fedstats
    Federal government website for statisics.
  • Google Unclesam
    Searches state and federal government and US military websites.
  • LexisNexis Statistical
    Includes statistics from federal and state government, and also from international and private sources.

Save Searches and Auto Alerts

  • Many databases allow you to save searches to run at a future date or set up Auto Alerts (a saved search that will be run whenever the database is updated with the results emailed to you). Go to the following link for instructions for setting up alerts in specific databases: Saving Searches and Auto Alerts
  • You can set up alerts in MERLIN to be notified when new books arrive in a particular subject area: MERLIN Alerts or you can subscribe to New Book RSS Feeds.

Keeping Track of Your References and Making Bibliographies

Find Library Books

  • From the MU Libraries' homepage, choose MERLIN under Find Books. Type in words describing the topic you are researching. Once you have a list of hits, select one that looks on-target, then examine the subject headings for that item. Click on that subject heading to retrieve similar items.
  • Click on the Search MOBIUS button to expand your search to about 50 additional libraries in our network including Washington University which has an extensive collection of architecture books: Request books from MOBIUS Libraries.
  • To request books not listed in MERLIN or MOBIUS go to Request Items-ILL MU under About the Libraries on the MU Libraries' homepage.
  • Browse new books

Additional Resources and Contacts