Dance: Find Articles

After you have formed your research thesis, brainstorm Search Terms. These are the words that you will use to search the databases.

For example, when researching Did Shakespeare's portrayal of women promote equality?   keywords = Shakespeare, women, equality.

Synonyms

When searching for articles, it is important to think about different terminology. For example, an author writing about Shakespearean women may only use the words "female characters" and "gender roles."  If you don't try different search terms, you may miss out on some great articles!

AND, OR, NOT

AND -results must include both words: Iraq AND War

OR -results can contain either of the words:  Children OR Adolescents

NOT -results include one word and not the other:  Global NOT Warming

Limit your Search

Databases all have ways to limit how you search them. This could be searching by Title, Author or Publication Date. Another great way to search is by Subject, sometimes called Descriptors or Subject Terms.

International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance (find specific guide to this resource under the "Finding Articles" tab)

• A comprehensive, multicultural and inter-disciplinary research tool comprised of over 60,000 journal articles, books and dissertation abstracts on all aspects of theatre and performance in 126 countries.

Literary Reference Center

• Literary Reference Center is a comprehensive literary reference database, which provides users with a broad spectrum of reference information from antiquity to the present day.

MLA International Bibliography

• A detailed bibliography of journal articles, books and dissertations produced by the Modern Language Association (MLA). Contains over 1.8 million citations from more than 4,400 journals & series, and 1,000 book publishers, including literary theory, criticism, folklore and the dramatic arts.

Academic Search Complete

• A full-text multi-disciplinary database that provides access to 4,650 scholarly journals, 3,600 of which are peer-reviewed. The majority of full-text availability goes back to 1975 (some even further).

Web of Knowledge

• An index to over 11,000 journals, including Arts & Humanities.  Allows citation searching (who an article has cited and who has cited that article).

Additional databases can be accessed at the Databases A-Z or the Subject Lists.