Core 110-05, 09 (Yenser)  Sex and Culture: Body Image

Finding a Scholarly Article

research guide
Librarian: Diane Prorak
E-mail: prorak@uidaho.edu

UI Library Website: www.lib.uidaho.edu

If you need additional help with your research, try:
Keywords

Below are some common subject terms and phrases that relate to this topic to give you some ideas.  You might try some of these terms, perhaps in different combinations.

  • anorexia nervosa  
  • beauty, personal psychological aspects
  • binge eating
  • body dissatisfaction or satisfaction
  • body image
  • body image disturbance
  • Body image in adolescence
  • Body image in men
  • body size
  • cosmetic surgery
  • depression (mental)
  • dieting
  • eating disorders, social aspects
  • gender
  • identity (Psychology)
  • obesity psychological aspects
  • obesity Social aspects
  • mass media or television
  • mass media and culture
  • mass media and teenagers
  • mass media influence
  • plastic surgery 
  • reducing diets
  • self-acceptance
  • self esteem in women
  • self-perception
  • stereotype in mass media
  • stereotype (psychology)
  • television advertising
Articles
Articles are found in periodicals.  Examples of periodicals are magazines, journals, and newspapers. Scholarly (also called peer-reviewed or refereed) journals are one of the primary means of disseminating ideas in academic scholarship. 

Scholarly vs. Popular  

What is the difference between a scholarly journal, a trade journal and a popular magazine? Use the links on the page to find out.

 
How To Find Current Articles
Articles are located by searching for your topic in an article database (sometimes called an article index). First, select an appropriate database from the Library Find Articles page or choosing one of those listed below. After selecting a database to search, type in search terms. Articles are generally more specific than books and may require a narrower search.

In the Ebsco databases, you can check a limit box to limit to scholarly journals. It reduces your results, but won't eliminate the news or editorial articles that may appear in journals.  

IMPORTANT SEARCH TIP:  If you are not getting the results you want from your search:

  • Try different search terms or different combinations of terms
  • Try a different database

Example of an efficient search:

  • (television or media): the parentheses and OR allow you to include more terms in one search
  • The * is a wildcard, so you will find teenager or teenagers
  • AND requires that the concepts of oral history and gay/lesbian sexual orientation are BOTH present in the resulting articles. 
  • The quotes require that the words are found as a phrase
  • Article Linker
    If the article in a database is not available in full text, click on the link or symbol for “Article Linker” to find out if the library has the journal and/or article available either in print or online or to request a copy of the article by Interlibrary Loan.

Selected Article Indexes for Sex and Culture: Body Image

Recommended Article Database Titles and Descriptions
EbscoSearch  A good general database of both scholarly and popular articles in almost all subject areas, many full text or with links to full text.  An excellent starting place. You can limit your search to scholarly journals by checking a box under "Limit your results" called "Peer Reviewed (Scholarly Journals)".
Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition: Articles focusing on medical and health issues. Use this to explore medical aspects of your topic.  Some are full text.
JSTOR: A collection of the back issues of full text older journals.  No issues in the last 3 years are included.
PsychINFO: Scholarly international index for the broad field of psychology providing citations and abstracts of international journal articles and current chapter and book coverage. Our library will not own all the articles.  Use the pulldown under "Limit to document type" to limit to peer reviewed articles. The  icon with UNIV OF IDAHO LIBR indicates we own the journal.  Use "See more details for locating this article" or "Locate article" to get the link or call number for the journal. 
Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection:  For mostly scholarly sources that deal with the psychology of gender issues.  Many full text articles.
Polling the Nations Gives questions and results of polls on various topics.  You may want to browse the list of topics and choose a broader aspect of your topic. 
ProjectMuse: A full text collection of some fairly recent journals in the humanities and some in the social sciences.
Religion and Philosophy Collection: An Ebsco database similar to EbscoSearch, but with some additional focus on religion and philosopy. Some full text.
Science Direct: A full text collection of the last 10 year of some journals in the sciences and some social sciences. Click on the "journals" button near the top to search journals only
Sociological Abstracts: Scholarly international index for the broad field of sociology.  Contains other types of publications besides journals, including dissertations and book chapters, but you can choose "journals" by choosing a tab.  Default search is a phrase search so use Boolean "and" to separate terms. Our library will not own all the articles. Use the "Locate article" link to determine if we have access to the article. 
Synergy: A full text collection of some fairly recent journals in the sciences and social sciences.
Other Web Resources
Google Scholar Google has a specific search that take you to a variety of more scholarly publications (not just articles, but many types of documents).  It is much less defined than the databases above. Some items retrieved are not strictly scholarly. Searching it results in a scatter of publications, all of which need to be scrutinized.  However, it is an impressive resource, sometimes pulling up articles not found elsewhere, old and new.  Sometimes you will see a link called "U Idaho Article Linker" to determine if the UI Library has the journal.
Evaluating Sources

While web sites require the most scrutiny, you should evaluate every source you use for your research. See Critically Analyzing Information Sources for general tips.

The Internet is a wonderful source for many different types of information. It is important to remember that anyone can publish something on the web and it is critical to evaluate your source carefully. The library's Website Evaluation Criteria  or Applying the CRAAP Test can help you choose reliable information.
Citing Sources

You will need to properly cite your sources.  Here are some links that may be helpful:

UI Library's page of Electronic Style Guides