Find Information at Bowman
Research Sources
Reference resources can help you get an overview of a topic. They also give you an idea of key terms associated with a topic that can help you with further searching.
- 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
- EBSCOhost (includes several component databases) This link opens in a new windowProvides online access to an extensive collection of databases, including Academic Search Premier, Business Source Complete, Newspaper Source, Alt HealthWatch, Health Source, and APA PsycArticles/PsycInfo. Offers the ability to search any and all of these at the same time. Sources include scholarly journals, magazines, newspapers, reports, and more.
- 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.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new window
A full-text collection of more than 400 journals in business and the liberal arts, with especially strong coverage of business, finance, economics, history, regional studies, education, and sociology. JSTOR is notable for the high quality of the journals it includes. The most recent three to five years of each journal are usually excluded from JSTOR, however. - 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.
- New York Times (NYTimes.com) This link opens in a new windowActivate your subscription from one of the links below and make sure you use the off campus activation link if you are off campus and the on campus activation link if you are on campus. After creating your account, you can log on to the New York Times site directly using your Menlo e-mail and the password you have set up. iPhone, iPad, and Android apps are available with your login. The Menlo Community has full-text access to the New York Times from 1851 to the present. For the years 1923-1980 there is a limit of 5 articles per day per user.
- 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.
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 source 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.
However, Google does allow 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 important results for your project or paper. Try out some of the tips below.
Get the most out of your Google search -- 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 misinformation AND social media This search phrase tells Google that you'd like results from the New York Times website that mentions misinformation and social media together in articles. **Using a site search is one of the best ways to search for articles on a given topic in the New York Times** You can use the Tools link to limit the date range. Here the search has been limited to 2016-2022.
- site:gov vaccine misinformation AND 'social media' This search phrase tells Google you'd like to see articles, reports, etc., from government websites concerned with misinformation about vaccines and social media. Because we want Google to search social media as a phrase, it's important to put the two words in quotes. [This search is limited to the period 2019-2022]
- site:edu misinformation AND 'social media' This search phrase tells Google to retrieve articles published by or in educational institutions that explore the topic that examines social media and misinformation.
Other search tips in Google
- Limit the date of your results by inserting the phrase after + colon + year or date without any spaces
- after:2019 travel restrictions COVID-19 This phrase tells Google that you'd like all your results to have been published after 2019 (note: the after + colon + date 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" or "carbon footprint" -- using the quotes will ensure you retrieve results with that exact phrase.