Which article database to use depends upon your topic.

1. General Article Databases

• Is your topic general or cross-disciplinary?
• Currently in the news?

If so, start with one of the general article databases. These cover a wide range of subjects and often index a mixture of popular and scholarly sources. They usually also allow you to restrict your search to just scholarly sources. This is often a good place to begin research. Examples of general article databases and the kinds of articles they identify are:

Academic Search Premier	Indexes articles from magazines and journals on a range of topics with backfiles from 1975 or further to the present. Many are full text.
Academic OneFile	Indexes articles from magazines, journals, and newspapers on many topics, from 1980 to the present. Many are full text.
LexisNexis Academic	Provides full text access to over 350 newspapers from 1980 or further to the present.