Start by brainstorming keywords and search terms. Use subject headings or descriptors to help generate search terms.
When you find a good article, look at its References or Works Cited list. That will often lead you to other useful sources.
If you see an article you'd like to read but you don't see a PDF for the article, click on the "Brandeis Access" button. This will open a new window that will allow you to see if Brandeis has access to the article through another database or if Brandeis has the article in print. If Brandeis doesn't have the article online or in print, you'll see an option to request the article through Interlibrary Loan.
Be sure to mine the citations of any secondary sources you use--these citations can point you toward excellent sources that you might not come across while doing keyword searching.
Try exploring the Library Catalog for books related to your topic. If Brandeis does not have a book you need, you can use WorldCat to search for books from other libraries and then request these books through Interlibrary Loan.
Search tip: Search for books by either Keywords or Subject Headings. Start with a Keyword search and identify some relevant books. Then look at the subject headings for those books. You can follow the subject heading links in the catalog to find similar books, or you can use the terms in the subject headings to identify other keywords to try.
For a broad search, start the Articles & More tab of the Library's OneSearch. The Articles & More tab searches across many of our subscription academic databases to find individual articles from journals, newspapers, magazines, and more.
For a more focused searched, try one of these recommended databases:
Wide variety of scholarly literature, newspapers, magazines, and more covering topics from a wide variety of disciplines. A great place to start searching for sources on your subject!
Bibliographic database for biomedical and health journals, curated by the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Entries from thousands of journals that have been approved by the advisory committee as high quality, with coverage back to 1966. Please note that while Brandeis access to this resource will end on January 31, 2025, we also have access to Medline’s content through ProQuest. More information.
The databases listed here search across many journal titles. You may also want to search within specific journals of interest as well. Here are some suggested journals.