When in doubt, ask a librarian!
Note: Journal articles, news paper articles, and magazine articles are all referred to as periodicals in these style guides because they are published on a regular schedule.
DOI stands for Direct Object Identifier. It is a number that identifies a specific journal article. If you search that number in Google, it will always take you to that article even if it is from a different website than where you originally accessed it. We use these numbers to help others identify the sources you have cited.
A DOI will appear as a link starting with https://doi.org/ or as just a series of numbers (and occasional letters). It always starts with 10.
Use the DOI as the link to the source in your bibliography or reference list.
If there is no DOI, find the permalink. This is usually indicated with an icon of two chain links or will be included in the autogenerated citation in the database or website you are using. It usually has "plink" included in the URL. Use the link at the top of your browser as a last resort for citations.
This guide will walk you through the research process with recommended course-specific resources. A list of some recommended resources included in this guide is below.
Don't forget to check out our other Research Guides for any interdisciplinary research and the Communication Research Guide for other subject-specific resources.
Screen reader user? Follow these links to get instructions on using the Library Search interface to find books and journal articles.
1851 to date. Does not include Crosswords and Times Insider.
HOW TO ACCESS:
FIRST: Register for an Academic Pass.
First time registrants MUST use their @wmich.edu email addresses to register for an Academic Pass. Your Academic Pass is good for 364 days from the date you activate it; after it expires you can re-register using the registration link above for a new pass for 364 days.
NEXT: Log in here with your WMU account.
Mobile APPS: Your Academic Pass includes access to the New York Times via the NYTimes smartphone and tablet apps.; these are included as part of the Academic Pass and are available here.
Full-text for almost 1,200 journals and citations of millions of articles. Content includes leading trade journals, professional and technical society journals, and conference proceedings.
ProQuest Central combines the complete content of over thirty of the most heavily used ProQuest databases across all major subject areas, with deep coverage in business, health and medical, news, social sciences, arts and humanities, and science and technology. It provides access to scholarly journals, high value market research, country, economic, and industry reports, pre-print working papers, full-text dissertations, and a vast number of newspapers, professional journals, and general interest periodicals.
ProQuest Central currently includes all the content available in these ProQuest Databases:
Is the National Library of Medicine's interface for searching MEDLINE, the major index to medical research, from clinical medicine to cellular and biomolecular biology. Free citations and abstracts, limited full-text. Coverage from 1893 to Current. Updated weekly.
If you get an error message when logging into your personal account through WMU, please clear your browser history or use an incognito window.
Covers world-wide literature in psychology and related disciplines. Journal articles, technical reports, books, book chapters, and dissertations are included. Coverage from 1806 to Current. Updated weekly.
Legal Source provides access to indexing and full-text coverage of 1,000 journals covering current issues, studies, thoughts and trends in the legal world.