You must identify 5 books or articles from academic or otherwise reliable sources. These sources must be relevant and trustworthy. They must also be relatively recent (no more than 10-15 years old). This page offers specific instructions for locating and accessing peer-reviewed articles through library databases.
A general database covering many areas of academic study. Find articles from over 7,000 full-text periodicals and abstracts from more than 11,000 additional journals.
The Harold L. Drimmer Library provides access to databases, which are organized collections of electronic resources. We can think of "resources" as articles, books, and other media that might serve a purpose in research. Databases are an excellent place to look for books and articles on your selected topic. Databases also give you the option to search for peer-reviewed sources, which will help you find information that is trustworthy and appropriate for this assignment. You may view a complete listing of the library's databases or click on the links on the left to search databases that are recommended for your assignment.
And remember to not use complete sentences when searching. You will use your keywords.
1. Selecting a Database
There are numerous databases that could help you find sources for this assignment. For this guide, I'll be using Academic Search Complete. Please see the "Recommended Databases" menu on this page for other suggestions. If you would like to use a different database, go to the WCC Library Homepage and select Browse Databases A-Z.
2. Using keywords and search limiters
Once you select a database, you should be brought to the database's search screen. On the database search screen, you will be presented with several search bars. Insert one keyword for each search bar. Do not write a complete sentence in a search bar or try to insert multiple keywords in one search bar. See the image below for an example.
Note that a keyword isn't necessarily only one word. When I selected keywords from my proposal, I considered "air quality" a keyword because it is one of the bigger ideas I want to discover information about. When a keyword is more than one word (a phrase) you can put it into quotes as I have done in the example below.
Limiters
You can limit your search to make sure you only get certain types of results. There are 3 things we should limit our search for. First, make sure you are searching for recent results: set the date limiter for the last 10-15 years. To do this, scroll down from the top of the search page and select "Custom Range" in the "Publication Date" section. Limit your results for within the last 15 years. You can also limit results for publication dates within the last 10 years using a default option, "Past 10 Years."
Next, limit for Full Text and Peer-Reviewed results. Check the two boxes (pictured above) on the search page.
Finally, you are ready to click Search and browse through your results.
3. Navigating the results page
The results page consists of a list of sources that include your search criteria (your keywords and limiters). Each result consists of a Title, Author(s), Summary, Subjects, and a database toolbar.
To get a sense for whether or not a source is relevant to your social problem, it's best to start by reading the title and the summary. You do not have time to read through hundreds of articles, but titles and summaries can often give you a sense of the contents of an article. To see the complete summary of an article on the results page, click "Show more" below any article's title.
Databases often come with tools to help you cite, save, and organize your research. On the results page, click the 3 dots next to a title (highlighted below) to view these options. See the Search Tips page in this guide to learn more about staying organized, saving articles, and generating citations using the databases built-in tools.
4. Accessing sources
To view a source more closely, click on its title. This will bring you to the record page for the source where you can view more information about it. To view an article or book in its entirety, you can either open it as a PDF or download it from this record page.
