Databases
General Databases
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Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new windowProvides access to journals covering the social sciences, humanities, education, and more. Good general-purpose database for researching most topics. Coverage: 1985-
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CQ Researcher This link opens in a new windowContains reports and analysis on issues in the news including health, social trends and issues, criminal justice, education, the environment, technology, and the economy. Great resource for background information on current news, hot topics, and social issues. Coverage back to 1923. Coverage: 1991-
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Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new windowProvides indexing and abstracts for journal articles, books, and dissertations covering the history of the world from 1450---except the U.S. and Canada. For similar coverage of the U.S. and Canada, use America History and Life. Access is limited to six simultaneous users. Coverage: 1954-
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JSTOR This link opens in a new windowA full-text database of archived issues of academic journals. Since JSTOR is a backfiles project, a typical coverage range is the beginning of a journal until three or five years ago. Artstor images are now integrated into JSTOR. Supported in part by the Dail Endowment Fund. Coverage: Varies
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Gale in Context: Environmental Studies This link opens in a new windowOffers authoritative content on the development of emerging green technologies and discusses issues on the environment, sustainability and more.
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Environment Complete This link opens in a new windowProvides coverage in applicable areas of agriculture, ecosystem ecology, energy, renewable energy sources, natural resources, marine & freshwater science, pollution & waste management, environmental technology, environmental law, urban planning, and more. Coverage: 1901-
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GreenFILE This link opens in a new windowCovers aspects of the human impact to the environment, and the connections between the environment and a variety of disciplines such as agriculture, education, law, health and technology. Topics covered include global climate change, green building, pollution, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, recycling, and more. Coverage: 1940-
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Policy Commons: Global Think Tanks This link opens in a new windowPolicy Commons contains publications from over 27,000 global policy organizations including think tanks, nonprofits, IGOs and NGOs. A critical resource for global development, environmental policy, trade, international politics and more.
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Anthropology Plus This link opens in a new windowProvides access to periodicals, journals, and edited works, with an emphasis on archaeology, anthropology, and linguistics. Coverage: Late 19th century-present
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APA PsycInfo This link opens in a new windowProvides abstracts to journal articles, book chapters, books and dissertations in psychology and related disciplines (sociology, linguistics, anthropology, education, medicine, law, physiology, business, psychiatry, nursing, pharmacology). Links to full text in PsycARTICLES and to other resources in ZSR. Coverage: 1806-
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Columbia International Affairs Online - CIAO This link opens in a new windowA source for NGO, IGO, ThinkTank, research institute, and grey literature on politics, international affairs, security studies, global finance, diplomatic practice, humanitarian law, global governance, development studies, and environmental studies. Contains working papers, research reports, proceedings, and more. Coverage: 1991-
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Communication and Mass Media Complete This link opens in a new windowContains scholarly literature on all aspects of communication studies, including discourse, linguistics, media studies, and rhetoric. Coverage: 1915-
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Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts This link opens in a new windowCovers theoretical and applied linguistics, psycholinguistics, speech therapy and other related topics. Coverage: 1973-
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ProQuest Political Science Database This link opens in a new windowContains hundreds of leading political science and international relations journals, full-text doctoral dissertations, working papers, conference proceedings, country profiles, political news and other sources. This link cross searches ProQuest Political Science Database, PAIS Index, and Worldwide Political Science Abstracts. Coverage: 1985-
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Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new windowProvides citations and abstracts to articles published in sociology, social welfare, and social policy, as well as other related topics in the social and behavioral sciences. Also includes citations to some books and many dissertations. Includes Social Services Abstracts. Coverage: 1952-
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Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new windowContains articles published in ethnic and minority newspapers and magazines (primarily published in the US), and in international scholarly journals (primarily english language) that focus on ethnic and minority issues. Coverage: 1995-
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Gale In Context: Global Issues This link opens in a new windowCombines overviews, viewpoints, reference, news, and scholarly material into one search platform for researching a wide variety of global issues.
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Global Breaking Newswires This link opens in a new windowIncludes newswire services from around the world, including the AP, Dow Jones Industrial News, dpa, AFP, Canadian Press, and others. The wires are available in various languages including Arabic, French, Italian, and German.
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ProQuest Current News This link opens in a new windowCurrent US and international news. This simultaneously searches ProQuest databases US Newsstream, International Newsstream, Global Breaking Newswires, Canadian Newsstream, Ethnic Newswatch, and Recent Newspapers.
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ProQuest International Newsstream This link opens in a new windowProvides the most recent news content from outside of the U.S. and Canada with archives that stretch back decades. The collection features newspapers, newswires, transcripts, and digital-only news sites in full-text format.
Finding Scholarly Articles
The databases provided by ZSR are the best places to locate scholarly research articles, reports from governmental and non-governmental organizations, and current international news reports.
When looking for articles that are considered scholarly, academic, or peer-reviewed, check for the following features in your results list:
- article length of 8-10 pages minimum
- author holds a PhD or is a professor at a college or university
- there is a substantial citation list/bibliography
- the journal is well-known and from a high-quality publisher
- the publication date is recent
- the article has the main features of a research article in its discipline: abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion, conclusion, bibliography
See the Evaluating Resources tab for more information on these criteria.
When searching a database, you can use the same types of strategies you used in the library catalog: keywords, truncation, and OR.
Here is an example from Environment Complete, using the same search terms as in the library catalog example. In this case, this search had over 2,000 results, where the library search had about 600 results. This reflects the different types of sources being searched and the larger number of journals and journal articles as compared to books.
