Addiction Counseling: Find Articles

Finding Articles on Specific Topics

This page provides information on where to find articles from journals, magazines, and newspapers. Here are some tips for searching in a library article database:

  • Begin your search by typing in just 1-3 keywords. Try not to use more than three search words. For example: e-cigarettes adolescents addiction.
  • Put quotation marks around words that you want to keep together as a phrase in your search. For example: "control group".
  • Use the limiters available on the results screen to limit to a specific type of publication. For example "peer-reviewed" or "magazines".
  • Keep trying! If you don't find anything good, try using different words with the same meaning. For example: vaping teens addiction will being up different results than e-cigarettes adolescents addiction
  • Use the library chat to ask for help!

What are library databases? Video

This 4:19 video describes what library databases are, why you might want to use one, and how to choose the right ones for your project. It also shows you how to use the PCC Library Articles and Databases page to find databases to use for your project. 

What is Peer Review?

Infographic describing the peer-review process.

Tutorial: How To Read a Scientific Article (video)

Found a peer reviewed journal article, and can't figure out what the heck it's about? Check out this 4 minute video on how to read and understand a peer-reviewed article (hint: it isn't from beginning to end!)

Tutorial: What are Peer Reviewed Articles? (video)

Recommended databases for published articles

For published journal articles about addiction, treatment, research and theory, begin with these databases. Each database contains articles from both magazine and peer reviewed journals. You can limit your search to one or the other.

Database search tips

Search tips for most library databases & web searching:

  • search tip: use an asterisk* to find various endings of a word root, ex. addict* will find addict, addicts, addiction, addicted, addictive.
  • search tip: put "quotation marks" around phrases, ex. "control group".
  • search tip: look for a way to limit your search by publication type, for example "Magazines" or "Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals".

Find Articles with Google Scholar

Google Scholar searches the web for scholarly articles, reports, books, and other materials. From home, you will need to set your Google Scholar preferences to access PCC Library resources. Setting the Library Links to PCC will ensure that when you search Google Scholar in your browser, you will see Find It @ PCC links to full text if we have the article. To learn how, visit the first page of this handout. 

If PCC has access to an article, a "Find it @ PCC" link will appear to the right of the article title. Click “Find it @ PCC” to go to the library catalog where you will be offered a choice to view the article. 

Google Scholar sometimes also provides links to other free sources for full text.