Religions
Religion - Dictionaries
Judaism
Christianity
Catholicism
Baptists
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Jehovah's Witnesses
Other specific denominations can also be searched
Islam
Hinduism
Buddhism
Confucianism
Taiosm
Shinto
Sikhism
Neopaganism
Simply put, databases were created to help you find credible information easily and quickly.
Students love databases because they are as easy to search as the Web: you simply type your search terms into a box and press a button that says search. Also, databases are available from any computer connected to the Internet, and can be accessed virtually any time of the day or night. This is very convenient for students with full schedules, jobs, and families.
Instructors love databases because the quality of information contained within them is often superior to what students find on the Web. Databases connect researchers to edited, evaluated, and published sources.
Learn more about the difference between using article databases and the free Web in this short video below:
Use the databases below to locate articles from magazines, newspapers, and scholarly journals (including peer-reviewed titles).
Why search here? When you want to find broad coverage on almost any topic you need to research at MJC, use Gale databases to search over 35 databases simultaneously.
What's included: Gale databases include articles previously published in journals, magazines, newspapers, books, and other media outlets.
Why search here? Search 29 databases at the same time that cover almost any topic you need to research at MJC. This is a good resource to use when you want to delve deeper into your subject.
What's included: EBSCO databases include articles previously published in academic journals, magazines, newspapers, books, and other media outlets.
Look for:
Peer review is a process that some scholarly journal publishers use to ensure the articles they publish represent the best scholarship currently available. Peer-reviewed journals are sometimes called "refereed" journals. When an article is submitted to a peer-reviewed/refereed journal, the editors send it out to other scholars in the same field to get their opinion on the quality of the scholarship and its relevance and importance to the field. This means that when an article is finally published in a peer-reviewed publication, there is a consensus among experts that the information communicated in that article is of the highest quality.
Not all scholarly publications are peer-reviewed, though it is very common for professors to request peer-reviewed articles to ensure you are exposed to the most credible information within your discipline.
The specific nature of journal articles, combined with the use of specialized vocabulary, means they are not always easy to read for the non-expert. It it is recommended that students have some basic knowledge about their topic before delving into scholarly information. This basic knowledge might be gleaned, for instance, from some of our Background Information databases below. Be sure to scroll down the databases page to see these.
Use the videos below to see how easy it is to find academic journal articles in two of our most used databases.
Use EBSCOhost Databases to Find Academic Journal Articles
Searching for Academic Articles in Gale Databases