Research databases are collections of digitized articles, essays, reviews, books and other material. Some databases are subject specific, while others are more general in scope.
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You will often use these databases when conducting research
Academic Search Premier contains full-text articles and abstracts to over 8,000 journals, making it one of the library's largest general databases.
Use Access World News to find newspaper and magazine articles from thousands of local, national and international news sources.
InfoTrac contains a mix of full-text articles and abstracts on a variety of topics.
JSTOR is another multidisciplinary database that provides thousands of articles on a variety of topics.
This database will be particularly helpful as you work on your persuasive speech.
To find relevant articles in any library research database, you'll have to use some strategic tactics. These tactics will vary depending on what you're trying to find.
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In a keyword search, the database scans every article and every abstract and retrieves anything the contains the words and/or phrases you've typed into the search boxes. To conduct a successful keyword search, you'll want to think of several words or short phrases that you can use to describe your research topic.
Subject searching requires you to use specific search terms that have been assigned to articles in the database. When you use a subject search, you will have fewer results than a keyword search, but often, these results are more relevant to your topic.
Sometimes you might want articles from a particular author or expert in the field. To do so, type the author's name into the search box and select "author" from the drop-down menu.
CQ Researcher provides in-depth coverage of the most important issues of the day. The reports are written by experienced journalists, footnoted and professionally fact-checked. Full-length articles include an overview, historical background, chronology, pro/con feature, plus resources for additional research. Graphics, photos and short "sidebar" features round out the reports. Shorter "Hot Topics" articles provide a solid introduction to subjects most in demand by students.