Step 2: Quick Search
Step 2:
Narrow down your topic and search for sources to use or quote.
You will need 4 sources, and you can find them all in two places:
a) Quick Search
Here you will search for BOOKS (in paper), eBooks (electronic), and more, including different types of articles.
Use this link to open the Quick Search in a new window
Watch the video below to learn more about how to use the Quick Search
Databases
b) Databases
For articles (from journals, magazines, or newspapers) or other electronic sources, like ebooks.
Watch the following video to understand what databases are and which to choose
Recommended Databases
- Academic Search Complete (EBSCO) This link opens in a new windowMost Recommended. Covers most academic subjects. Find scholarly journals, professional magazines, and news sources.
- CQ Researcher (Sage) This link opens in a new windowResearch overviews of public affairs topics covering social, economic, environmental and technological issues.
- Opposing Viewpoints (Gale) This link opens in a new windowViewpoint articles, topic overviews, government and organizational statistics, newspaper and magazine articles and more concerning social issues.
- Gale eBooks This link opens in a new windowWide ranging credible scholarship on many topics. Literature, short stories, poetry, science and social sciences are well covered. This is a great database to begin research. It is a sound academic replacement for Wikipedia.
- Films on Demand (Infobase) This link opens in a new windowDocumentaries and videos on many topics. Create clips and playlists.
- Science in Context This link opens in a new windowAuthoritative reference information on hundreds of significant science topics.
Statistics
- Statista This link opens in a new windowKick-start your research with access to relevant data from over 18,000 sources. Statista provides statistics, studies and customizable reports.
Newspaper articles:
- America's News (NewsBank) This link opens in a new windowFull text news from major national newspapers, local and regional titles as well as newswires, blogs, web-only content, videos, journals, magazines, transcripts and more.
- Florida's Newspapers (NewsBank) This link opens in a new window
Search over 80 Florida newspapers in one search. - America's Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new windowIncludes hundreds of primary source historical U.S. newspapers published between 1690 and the 20th Century. Complete content of each issue, including news stories, illustrations, advertisements, cartoons and more.
Biographies / Famous People
- Biography In Context (Gale) This link opens in a new windowAuthoritative Full Text content from Reference sources, Periodicals and multimedia. Search for people based on name, occupation, nationality, ethnicity, birth/death dates and places or gender.
How to identify peer-reviewed scholarly sources
Find peer-reviewed articles in Academic Search Complete (and other EBSCO databases):
Not every article from the databases or from academic journals is peer-reviewed! Only some go through an extra round of revieweing before getting published.
To search for scholarly sources that are "peer-reviewed" in databases such as "Academic Search Complete" (EBSCO), make sure to click the button with that option on the search page, as shown here:
