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FADM: Furnishings and Decor Merchandising

Library guide for FADM courses

Suggested Databases

Finding the full text of an article

  1. If you have the DOI, paste it directly into the search box on the Libraries' homepage. Click on the "DOI found" button and attempt access through the three options provided.
  2. From the Libraries homepage, go to the search box and select "Online Articles" from the dropdown menu. Copy and paste the title of the article into the search box. Putting the title in quotation marks will improve the accuracy of your search. This system finds many of the articles that the UNT Libraries has access to. If the title is short and uses common words, this technique alone might not work, so you should also include the last names of the author(s).
  3. Next, try searching for the title in Google Scholar—again with just the title or possibly also the names of the author(s). If you are working off campus, be sure to configure "library links" (see instructions). Note that Google Scholar includes not just links to full text of the final published versions but also earlier drafts of articles in cases where the author makes them available. These likely lack the final pagination or other details that you might need in order to find an exact point referenced in a citation.
  4. If these options do not take you to the full text, look up the title of the journal (not the title of the article!) to see if the UNT Libraries has access. From the Libraries homepage, type the name of the journal in the central search box. Select "Cataloged Books and More" from the dropdown menu before clicking search.  If you find the journal, you may be presented with options to access the journal online through one or more platforms and/or to find a print version of the journal in the physical collections of the Libraries. Once you reach the journal, you will need to find your specific article, perhaps by locating the volume and issue in which it's located.
  5. If you are still unable to find full-text access, you can request the article through InterLibrary Loan or you can contact your subject librarian for additional help.

Finding Trade Publications

A trade journal is a periodical that targets individuals working in a particular industry, trade or profession. They are often published by industry or professional associations. The articles focus on trends, best practices and events in that field. New practices and trends often appear in trade journals before they appear in scholarly journals. 

Many databases include a checkbox that allows you to select the types of sources that will be included in the search results. It is usually in a list of items called "Publication Type," "Source Type," or "Content Type." Sometimes it appears in the area below the basic search box.  If it isn't there, look at the search options available with the advanced search.

Finding Peer Reviewed Articles

Peer review is a practice in which an article proposed for publication is reviewed by a group of experts in the same field as the article to establish that it meets established standards for scholarly research.

Many databases include a checkbox that allows you to limit search results to peer reviewed items. Sometimes it appears in the area below the basic search box.  If it isn't there, look at the search options available with the advanced search or the filter options after you perform your search.

Another way to determine if an article is Peer Reviewed or Scholarly, is to search for the title of the journal which published the article in: Ulrichsweb.