To identify journal articles on a specific topic, use a periodical database (also known as a "periodical index" or an "article database"). There are many different periodical databases available through York University Libraries. Some are subject-specific to Geography (e.g. GeoBase, GeoRef, Environment Complete; whereas others are multi-disciplinary or citation indexes (e.g. Scopus, Google Scholars, Web of Science).
For a step-by-step guide on how to search for journal articles go to our research guide: Finding Journal Articles at York University Libraries.
Below is a list of suggested databases to use in your assignments, papers, and research in Geography.
When searching online, various words are used to help broaden or narrow your search. Here are a few tips you should know before searching any academic database:
Boolean operators: Most internet and electronic databases follow the rules of boolean logic. Boolean logic refers to the relationships (connections or differences) between different search terms. The most common boolean operators are:
AND - used to narrow a search and establish more relevant results by linking keywords together (e.g. "behavioural" and "psychology").
OR - broadens a search and get more results. Typically used for synonyms and words with variant spellings (e.g. "self-actualization" and "self-identity").
NOT - use to narrow a search and get more relevant results (e.g. "behaviouralism" not "humanism").
Truncation: used to find similar words with different endings
e.g. human* searches "human and humans"
e.g. educat* searches "education", "educate", "educational" etc
asterisk (*) searches for various different endings of a word in most databases (including York University), however LexisNexis uses an exlamation mark (!).
Quotation Marks - using quotation marks will allow you to search for exact phrases. For example, searching "mental impairment" will only retreive searches with both "mental" and "impairment" together in that order.