Chainsawsuit comic by Kris Straub, from Sept. 16, 2014
Find Information at Bowman
Best Sources for this Course
- CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window
Provides original, comprehensive reporting and analysis on current events, including summaries and bibliographies. Controversial topics are addressed in a balanced, unbiased manner in the Congressional Quarterly tradition.
- Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text reference books in 20 subject areas. It includes over 180 titles and 65,000 images "powered by a network of cross-references that cut across topics, titles and publishers to provide answers - and new connections - in context." coverage: Varies
Finding Journal Articles
Often you will need to find scholarly articles, academic articles, or peer-reviewed articles. These are generally all the same thing. They are written by scholars who are experts in their fields and are usually tied to a college or university. They are great for:
- Credible and trustworthy information
- Recent findings and research topics in the field
- Research studies, tables, and data
- Bibliographies and reference lists.
- Academic Search Premier (via EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new window
Provides searching of over 8,500 journals, including peer-reviewed, across a wide range of topics. coverage: 1975 to present - Business Source Complete (via EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new window
Leading scholarly business database with over 1,300 publications, including peer-reviewed journals. Covers all business disciplines, including financial data, company profiles, industry reports, market research reports, SWOT analyses, etc. - Taylor & Francis Social Science & Humanities Library This link opens in a new windowProvides access to article content from over 1,400 journals featuring key research across 14 Social Sciences & Humanities subject areas including, Cultural Studies, Economics, Media, Mental Health, Psychology, Sociology, Sports, and more.
- Financial Times (via ABI/INFORM) This link opens in a new windowFirst time users, create an account using link below; make sure to use Menlo email. The Financial Times covers a variety of topics, including management, legal industry, politics, climate change, & economics; all from a global perspective.
- Flipster This link opens in a new window
Flipster is a next-generation digital magazine reader.
Bowman Library has access to select past issues of the following magazines: .net, Film Comment, Fit & Well, Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Magazine, Popular Science, ReNew, Web Designer, and World Soccer - New York Times (NYTimes.com) This link opens in a new windowA great resource for tracking events & developments across the country. After activating your subscription from one of the links below, log on to the New York Times site directly using your Menlo e-mail & password to access content.
- New York Times One-Time Activation from Off Campus This link opens in a new windowUse this link to set up your account from an off campus location.
- New York Times One-Time Activation from On Campus This link opens in a new windowUse this link to set up your account from an on campus location.
- Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition) This link opens in a new windowAccess the Eastern Edition of the Wall Street Journal through ABI/Inform. Use the search option to search for articles or browse by issue. Coverage from 1984-present.
Data.Census.Gov -- U.S. Census Bureau
This site is a product of the U.S. Census Bureau. Through its search bar, you can locate information about consumers, places, industries, etc. From the main search bar, enter the city name, county name or zip code you wish to explore.
- Google Scholar This link opens in a new windowProvides access to scholarly literature "across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations." Note that many articles contain only the citation and no full text; if full text is not available, you can order articles or books via Interlibrary Loan.
- Statista This link opens in a new window
One of the world's largest statistics portals with data from over 18,000 sources. Provides access to 1 million statistics. Also contains information on industries, countries, digital markets, and other topics, as well as infographics.
Another place to search for needed information is simply to 'Google it.' Again, it is important to think about what results you are finding: Who is the author or sponsor, why is the information being published? Is there obvious bias? How authoritative is the soure you find?
Google gives you so many results it is difficult to know which ones are useful or reliable. Articles rise to the top of a search based on the number of times they are clicked on; this might not be the best way to choose what will be most important for your search.
But,Google allows several ways for you to target your results. If you implement some of the following techniques, you will find that you can leverage the power of Google to help you find solid results for your project. Try out some of the tips below.
Get the most out of your Google search
Searching in Google can also help you uncover relevant articles for your research. The problem is, how to find results that will be helpful?
SITE Searching
One way to target results in Google is to employ the site search. This requires you use a specific phrase before adding search terms to tell Google you only want results from a specific website or domain. The search always begins with site + colon + URL or Domain all without any spaces; next, add a space and insert your search terms. See the examples below -
- site:nytimes.com "voter suppression" AND misinformation This search phrase tells Google that you'd like results from the New York Times website that mention voter suppression as a phrase in connection with misinformation. **This is one of the best ways to search for articles on a given topic in the New York Times** Notice that we put voter suppression in quotes, to ensure that Google looks for the phrase, not the individual words.
- site:gov disinformation U.S. elections This search phrase tells Google you'd like to see articles, reports, etc., from government websites concerned with disinformation in connection with U.S. elections.
- site:edu 'fake news' Russia This search phrase tells Google to retrieve articles published by or in educational institutions having to do with fake news as a concept and any connection with Russia in or involving China.
Other search tips in Google
- Limit the date of your results by inserting the phrase after + colon + year or date without any spaces
- after:2016 Hate speech regulations college campuses This phrase tells Google that you'd like all your results to have been published after 2016 (note: the after phrase can come before or after your search terms)
- You can also limit your results to a given date range by clicking on Tools under the search bar, and then Any Time under that.
- Search for an exact phrase by putting a phrase in quotes when entering it in the search bar, e.g., "climate change" -- using the quotes will ensure you retrieve results with that exact phrase.
