Library Guides: French & Francophone Studies: Find Articles

Tutorials

Tutorial: Finding Articles
Learn the process for finding articles using indexes. This is essential background information for all students. Estimated reading time: 20 minutes.
Tutorial: Scholarly Articles
Scholarly articles: what they are, how to find, recognize, read, and use them. Includes exercises. Estimated reading time: 20 minutes.
Tutorial: Keyword Searching
A short tutorial providing background on how keyword searching works, with tips to improve your search results. Estimated reading time: 10 minutes.
Using Google, Google Scholar and Other Internet Search Engines
A guide on using internet search engines, with a section on using Google Scholar and setting it to recognize you as a Trent student.

What is Interlibrary Loan?

Interlibrary loan is a system that allows you to request material from other libraries to be sent to Trent for you to borrow. Normally, there are no costs to use the ILL service. Plan ahead because it can take a few days or even weeks for material to be sent, depending upon availability.

Visit the Interlibrary Loan page for more information.

Find Articles in Omni

You can find most articles using the Omni search. Enter some keywords, a citation, a DOI, an author - whatever you need.

The link to full text is in the full description when you click the title.

Search Omni
Link to the Omni search tool.
Omni Guide
A guide for using the Omni search tool.

Key Scholarly Databases

Try these databases to find scholarly articles in French and Francophone Studies beyond what Omni found.

CAIRN.INFO This link opens in a new window
- This indexing and abstracting database contains academic resources written in French. The collection covers the humanities and social sciences and includes journals, eBooks, and conference proceedings.
Erudit This link opens in a new window
- A wide range of scholarly publications, including journals, books, theses, and conference proceedings, primarily in the humanities and social sciences.
- Focused on Canadian and Francophone research, Érudit supports open access.
Repère This link opens in a new window
- A bibliographic database that indexes French-language periodicals from Quebec and other francophone regions of Canada, covering topics such as the humanities, social sciences, arts, and culture.
Modern Language Association (MLA) International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
- Index of scholarly articles, books, and dissertations in the fields of literature, language, linguistics, and folklore. It provides researchers, students, and academics with extensive bibliographic information and critical resources for exploring and studying literary and linguistic topics.
Gale Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window
- Provides access to biographies, critical essays, and literary analyses of authors and their works.
- Includes Contemporary Authors Online, Contemporary Literary Criticism Select, and Dictionary of Literary Biography Online.
Scholars Portal Journals This link opens in a new window
- An index of academic journals across various disciplines. It provides metadata and links to full-text articles, facilitating efficient searches for scholarly content.

Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century (SVEC)
The SVEC is both a journal and a series of books. This free online index can be used to search for citations. You can order the articles or books through RACER, our Interlibrary Loans system.

Other Scholarly Databases

The following databases will be useful to some topics.

Academic Search Elite This link opens in a new window
- Contains peer-reviewed journals, magazines, and newspapers across various academic disciplines.
Canadian Business and Current Affairs Database (CBCA) This link opens in a new window
- Canada's largest and most comprehensive bibliographic full-text reference and current events database, providing access to scholarly journals, trade publications, magazines, reports, radio and television transcripts, news, dissertations, and more from a Canadian perspective spanning various subject areas such as business, economics, politics, arts, sports, and more.
CPI.Q Canadian Periodicals (Gale OneFile) This link opens in a new window
- Gale OneFile Canadian Periodical Index provides access to a wide range of Canadian magazines, journals, and newspapers covering diverse topics such as current events, culture, business, health, and more.
Academic OneFile This link opens in a new window
- A collection of peer-reviewed, full-text articles from leading academic journals and reference sources, covering a wide range of subjects including the arts, business, health, history, law, literature, science, and social science, making it a valuable resource for scholarly research and study.
International Medieval Bibliography This link opens in a new window
- Indexes scholarly articles, books, and reviews related to the study of the Middle Ages (c. 400-1500 AD). It covers a wide range of disciplines, including history, literature, art, archaeology, and theology.
Iter Bibliography This link opens in a new window
- Bibliographic materials pertaining to the Middle Ages and Renaissance (400-1700). Citations for books, journal material, essays in books, entries in conference proceedings, festschriften, encyclopedias and exhibition catalogues.
Periodicals Archive Online This link opens in a new window
- A major online periodical archive covering historical issues of periodicals in the humanities and social sciences from the seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Troubleshooting Searches

Too few articles:

Check for typos and spelling. Consider using both American and British spellings (eg. behaviour or behavior).
Remove long phrases.
Make sure you're using a database that is likely to include information on your topic.
Try using other synonyms and alternate words joined by the Boolean Operator 'OR' (e.g. aboriginal or indigenous or First Nations).
Check your Boolean logic. Are you using 'AND' when you should be using 'OR'?
If you have found at least one good article, look at the references of this article to find other related articles OR use the 'Find citing' or 'Find related' buttons when available in the databases.

Too many articles:

Add another concept to your searching using the Boolean operator 'AND'.
Add Limits (e.g. Peer Reviewed, Date of Publication, Language, Publication Type, etc.).
Check your Boolean logic. Are you using 'OR' when you should be using 'AND'?
When Keyword searching, try searching just in the Title field. This is not recommended for all searches, as you will eliminate relevant articles that don't have those keywords in the title, but it will likely find a few articles to get you started.
If you're searching in a database that covers all subjects (e.g. Academic Search Elite, Web of Knowledge), look for a database that is subject specific.