Databases and Resources
Finding Journal Articles
Often your professor will ask you to use 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.
Find Journal Articles about your topic:
- PsycARTICLES and PsycINFO (via EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new window
PsycARTICLES searches "over 50 top full-text psychology publications covering the disciplines of Human Physiology, Personality Psychology, Social Psychology, Educational Psychology, and more." The database includes all material from the print journals with the exception of advertisements and editorial board lists. PsycINFO provides access to abstracts only of international literature in psychology and related disciplines, including psychiatry, education, business, medicine, nursing, pharmacology, law, linguistics, and social work. - 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. (Our subscription includes the Arts & Sciences I, Arts & Sciences IV, Business I, and Business II collections.) 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.
- 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 - Alt HealthWatch (via EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new windowProvides access to over 180 publications, including peer-reviewed journals, on complementary, holistic, and integrated approaches to health and wellness.
- Health Source (via EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new windowContains 550 scholarly full-text journals with a focus on many medical disciplines, as well as 80 full-text publications on consumer health and 130 health reference books.
- PubMed This link opens in a new windowContains citations and abstracts for more than 28 million articles in medicine.
- COVID-19 Resources - Coronavirus Research Databasea collection of journal articles, preprints, conference proceedings, dissertations and more related to COVID-19 and other coronaviruses. It includes comprehensive research background coverage of past pandemics and epidemics, like MERS and SARS, to give researchers and students context around the current global crisis.
- National Institute of HealthThe National Institutes of Health (NIH), a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the nation’s medical research agency — making important discoveries that improve health and save lives.
- 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 marketing, management, accounting, finance, and economics. Also includes financial data, company profiles, industry reports, market research reports, SWOT analyses, and more.
- Dissertations & Theses Global This link opens in a new window
The world's most comprehensive collection of full-text dissertations and theses. PQDT Global consists of PhD and Masters dissertations and theses - over 3 million theses abstracts, with approximately half in full text. Subject coverage includes business and economics, social sciences, technology, arts, and humanities.
Statistics & Online Resources
Are you researching a specific age group or locale? Find out more about the people by using statistical resources like the ones below.
- 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.
- U.S. Census BureauThis resource provides a wealth of demographic information about people, geography, and businesses. Enter a state, city, county, or zip code into the Community Facts box at the top of the page and then take a look at some of the options in the left-hand column to find out about a community's population, age, education, income, and other data.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsThe Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) of the U.S. Department of Labor is the principal federal agency responsible for measuring labor market activity, working conditions, and price changes in the economy.
"Who Cares?"
Ask yourself who cares about the topic you are researching.
Google Search using [site:.org | .edu | .gov]
.org = non-profit organizations
.edu = education sites, sites tied to universities
.gov = government and governmental organizations
For example: If I put in the search <gender identity site:org> I will get results that show organizations that address issues related to gender identity.
Examples:
- Pew Research Center - Gender & LGBTQ: https://www.pewresearch.org/topic/gender-lgbtq/
- Clayman Institute for Gender Research: https://gender.stanford.edu/
- National Institute of Health: https://www.nih.gov/
In the following search, I am requesting Google only retrieve results from websites of the U.S. Government that include the term gender expression:
<gender expression site:gov> Note: the site:gov phrase can be placed before or after your search terms.
To target your results to a specific time period, click on the Tools button on the top right, and then Any Time back on the left of the page and select a time frame from the drop down menu, or enter a custom date range. In the above sample search, results are limited to the period from 2018-2023.
Finding Books and Ebooks
Bowman Library has a large variety of books and ebooks that are chosen for their relevance to the courses offered. You can access ebooks directly from the library website whether your off or on campus. Books and ebooks are good for finding overviews and history of your topic. You don't need to read the whole book to get the information you need for your project; often one chapter of a scholarly book will cover the information you need.
Search the Bowman Library Catalog
Try some of the following subject terms in the online catalog to find relevant results:
Sexual orientation United States
