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Children's Literature Studies: Scholarly Articles

Resources to Research & Access Articles

Accessing Articles

Finding an Article with Its Citation

 

Search Children's Literature Journals
Search Relevant Databases

Arts & Humanities Databases

Use the dropdown arrow to choose other relevant databases and online resources.

Database Searches

keywords text with a magnifying glass over the 'key' part of the phrase

Begin developing a topic and finding sources by asking yourself a few questions...

  • What do you already know about this topic from your course readings? 
  • Are there similar ideas that you might want to explore? 
  • What are the key concepts that you're interested in pursuing?

Once you've spent a bit of time answering these questions or if you already have a working topic or research question, you can take the key concepts you've identified and use the keywords and phrases to search for sources.

Use tools like the online Keyword Generator (below) and the Keyword Worksheet to get started!

Screenshot of University of Texas Libraries' Keyword Generator

Topic Searching with Keywords

Databases respond best to keyword searching. To search efficiently, try the tips below when searching with the keywords you've developed.

Research Question: 
How do representations of education in contemporary picturebooks use child agency to resist the "banking" model?

Tip #1: Use Boolean operators like AND and OR to tell the database how to search for your keywords:

Use AND in a search to...

  • narrow your results
  • tell the database you only want search results in which ALL search terms are present
  • example: picturebooks AND education AND agency

Use OR in a search to...

  • connect two or more similar concepts (synonyms, broader terms, narrower terms, and alternate spellings)
  • broaden your results, telling the database that ANY of your search terms can be present in the search results
  • example: picturebooks OR illustrated books

Venn diagram of three overlapping circles. "And" indicates the point at which all three overlap   

 

 Venn diagram of two overlapping circles. "Or" indicates both circles and the area where they overlap.

Tip #2: Truncate some of the keywords using an asterisk to search for variations of a word.

 

educat*

picturebook*

Will Find:

Will Find:

educate
educates
educated
educating
education
educations
educator
educators

 picturebook
 picturebooks

Citation Searches

You can use an article for more than just content.  Check to see:

  • If there are words/phrases in the subject terms or abstract that you can use as search keywords.
  • If there are instruments, tests or measures you want to use in your own research.
  • What else the author has written.
  • If the references (cited works) are useful for your own argument or literature review.
  • What other articles have cited this article since it was published and if they also may be useful sources.

Citation searches are a great way to find the folks writing articles in direct conversation about a topic, text, or theoretical lens. Citation searching means looking at a publication's reference list (folks they cited before publishing) and "cited by" list (folks who cited them after they published).

Image demonstrating the relationship between sources in direct conversation through citation. For any given publication, its reference list represents the relevant and related sources it cited prior to publishing, and the "cited by" list represents the relevant and related sources that cited it after its publication. Citation searching consists of looking through a publication's reference and cited by lists to find other relevant sources.

The reference list will be at the end of the article, chapter, or book, and you can pick which sources you want to track down. The Cited By list is different but just as easy to find with tools like Google Scholar. Simply search for the article/publication in Google Scholar, then click the Cited By link below the title in the search results. This will bring up a list of all the publications Google Scholar can find that cited the original article. You can do this type of search with any publication you find until you have what you need.

Screenshot of Google Scholar search result for article titled "Teachers as Zookeepers? How Picture Books Describe Classroom Management." The Cited By link is indicated.

Link Google Scholar to Simmons Library

Google works with libraries to determine which journals and papers they've subscribed to electronically.  Once you configure the Library Links settings in Google Scholar, links to full-text articles will display in Google Scholar when they're available through Simmons Library.

Screenshot of Google Scholar search results page. "Check Simmons Library" links to the right of the results column are indicated.

  • Use Google Scholar From On-Campus

    • To make these links appear, just access Google Scholar from any Simmons computer and the links will automatically be included.

  • Google Scholar From Off-Campus
    • Click on Settings link in the upper right corner of Google Scholar.
    • Choose "Library Links" on the left, type Simmons University and click the "Search" button.
    • If prompted, check "Simmons University - Check Simmons Full Text"  from the list of results.
    • Click the blue "Save" button.
    • Start searching Google Scholar with links to your library's resources (you may need to authenticate yourself to access these resources).