You use the search terms from your research topic to search for journal articles on a topic - usually in a database.

Start your searches with broad searches (2-3 keywords, not too specific) in a general database like 1Search or Google Scholar.  Google Scholar is simple to search in, but it does take some practice to learn how to get articles that are not freely available and to make sure you are choosing the best scholarly articles.  <Learn More>

If your topic is more specialized, you may want to search in a subject database. Subject databases are available through the library for almost every topic including history. The main databases for American History is called America History and Life  and the companion database Historical Abstracts but there are others depending on your topic.

To help you find resources in the OSU Libraries related to his topic, try the following terms/subject headings/subheadings

• Genocide
• Genocide  Case Studies
• Genocide  Philosophy
• Genocide Political Aspects
• Genocide Sociological Aspects
• Genocide Prevention

For specific regions add the region or country name. For example: 

• Genocide  Rwanda
• Genocide  Cambodia
• Genocide China
• Genocide Germany
  • Use Holocaust instead. Also Holocaust denial, Holocaust literature, Holocaust survivors, etc.

More specifically, you can also try the following terms

• "War crimes" trial
• Political atrocities
• Ethnic relations
• Crimes against humanity
• Massacres (e.g. Armenian Massacre)
• Forced migration (and a specific region or group)

Placing search terms "in quotation marks" tells 1Search that you want results where the terms are located next to one another. This is helpful when searching for compound words or discrete concepts like "gender roles" and "South Sudan".