Library Guides: AL 130: Academic Literacies: Find: Searching Databases

Searching for Articles

As you begin to really have a good understanding of your topic and research question, you will want to find articles and other resources that provide additional information or perspectives on a topic. A great place to start is LionSearch, a resource that allows you to search for books, journal articles, and news articles, all one place! Additional places you can search include:

CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window
A collection of easy-to-use and easy-to-read reports on popular topics.
The CQ Researcher is a collection of reports covering political and social issues, with regular reports on topics in health, international affairs, education, the environment, technology and the U.S. economy. Keywords: hot topics, current events, social issues, social trends, archive, English 15, CAS 100, background information, general interest, contemporary issues, overviews. CQ Global Researcher (formerly a stand alone DB) content was merged into CQ Researcher.
Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new window
This database of controversial issues offers you all types of articles and resources on both sides of the issue.
Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center provides research and background information on social issues. The database contains the essays from the Opposing Viewpoints series, supplemented by statistics, primary documents, links to websites, and full-text magazine and newspaper articles. Keywords: hot topics, current events, social issues, social trends, English 15, CAS 100, background information, general interest, contemporary issues, overviews.
Academic Search Complete (Ebsco) This link opens in a new window
A database of scholarly sources on a wide variety of topics.
Academic Search Complete is a comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 5,300 full-text periodicals, including 4,400 peer-reviewed journals. In addition to full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for more than 9,300 journals and a total of 10,900 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc. The database features PDF content going back as far as 1865, with the majority of full text titles in native (searchable) PDF format.

Searching for Background Information

You will probably search for background information as you try to figure out which direction your research is headed. There are a number of helpful resources for background information, including Wikipedia and some of the other reference sources we provide through the Libraries:

Gale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL) This link opens in a new window
A collection of over 2000 reference resources.
Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new window
Oxford Reference Online consists of a wealth of facts, figures, definitions, and translations found in dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press.
SAGE Reference Online This link opens in a new window
A gateway to those SAGE reference publications (encyclopedias and handbooks) Penn State has acquired.

If you need some additional help with finding background information, check out our tutorial on this topic.