The Dean's Book Course Research Database Guide
Developed in cooperation with the Commonwealth College Research Literacy Office and W.E.B. DuBois reference librarians, this guide is designed to assist you in your research for the Dean's Book Course and other courses as well. We have customized links to interdisciplinary databases as well as library databases with alternative publications.
Collection Overview. The UMass Amherst Libraries support student research through online subscriptions to 17,000 journals. Journal databases includes peer-reviewed professional journals, consumer magazines, and daily newspapers - most in full-text, full-image format. The online collection is available 24/7 on-campus or from your home (off-campus users are prompted for OIT username/passwords).
Database Search Tips. Search for articles from the following list of library databases. Start with a broad-based multidisciplinary journal database. These databases cover key journals in all field. Then narrow your research with discipline-specific databases. These databases search journals on a specific subject or field of research. When you find articles of value, locate the email button, and send the article in your email account. For a guide to subject headings and key words, see the Classification Web. For a quick explanation of search logic and tips on using database search delimiters, see "A Primer in Boolean Logic."
Help Is Available. If you have not used on-line database  searches before, resource staff members are available to help you at the Learning Commons on the lower level of the W.E.B. Du Bois Library. Staff hours are can be found at the Service Desk Website.
Database research help is also available through the Library's Ask a Librarian reference service.
Databases
Sites of Interest on the DBC website
Students working in last year’s Dean’s Readers seminar selected the books for this year’s DBC and also compiled a wealth of print and online references, as well as their own research papers, for your use.
- Sites of Interest
These sites contain essays, full bibliographies, and other research materials directly related to the semester's book.
W.E.B. DuBois Dean's Book Course Site
The Library has prepared a page of resources for use by the Dean's Book community. The page contains links to databases relevant to this semester's book as well as several how-to videos on the topics of research and documentation, and more. The page can be found at http://guides.library.umass.edu/dbc.
Broad-based interdisciplinary databases
These multidisciplinary databases contain articles from thousands of the most well known scholarly journals. Most articles have been peer-reviewed for accuracy by other scholars, thus limiting the need for further evaluation. NOTE: Database URLs sometimes change. If a link given here fails, you can access that database through the UMass Libraries Database Locator.
- Academic Search Premier
Multidisciplinary database indexes 8,600 journals in all fields. Coverage: 1975 to present.
- Expanded Academic ASAP
Multidisciplinary database indexes 2,600 journals in all fields. Coverage: 1980 to present.
- Google Scholar
Accessing Google Scholar through the UMass library system lets you retrieve articles available here without cost.
- JSTOR
Archive of important scholarly journals across disciplines.
- PAIS International
100 bibliographic and full-text databases and journals in four primary editorial areas: natural sciences, social sciences, arts & humanities, and technology.
- Classification Web
This is not a database but a library cataloger’s tool. It is the Library of Congress classification scheme in a searchable heirarchy of related subject headings.
Discipline-specific databases
These databases become especially useful as you narrow the focus of your research by allowing you to search a subject in depth from the perspective of a particular discipline. NOTE: Database URLs sometimes change. If a link given here fails, you can access that database through the UMass Libraries Database Locator.
Anthropology & Sociology
•Anthropology Plus
The scholarly literature of archaeology and anthropology (biological, physical, linguistic, social and cultural) in several languages, late 1800s to present.
•AnthroSource
The full text of the 32 journals published by the American Anthropological Association, some dating back to the nineteenth century.
•International Encyclopedia of Social & Behavioral Sciences
Articles, with bibliographies, from experts on all aspects of the social sciences.
Arts & Humanities
•Art Abstracts
Citations, abstracts (full text or links to full text) to articles in the field of art from international art publications, including periodicals, yearbooks, and museum bulletins.
• MLA International Bibliography
Citations to journal articles, books, book chapters, and dissertations, relating to literature, literary theory and criticism, linguistics, and folklore.
•Project Muse
Full-text articles from scholarly journals in the humanities and social sciences published by Johns Hopkins University Press
Business & Finance
•ABI/Inform Global
Includes full text articles from Wall Street Journal Eastern edition, from 1984 to present. Strong coverage of academic journals.
•Business Source Premier
8,000 trade journals, magazines, and periodicals on all aspects of business
• General Businessfile ASAP
Articles from 1,000 business journals and magazines.
Communications
•Communications & Mass Media Complete
Articles from the field of communications and mass media.
History & Cultural Studies
•Historical New York Times
New York Times newspaper articles 1851-2002
•Middle Eastern & Central Eastern Studies
Scholarly articles, books and book chapters on the countries and peoples of the Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa.
•Quarterly Index of African Periodical Literature
Over 300 mostly scholarly periodicals from 29 African countries, 1991-present.
Political Science
•Columbia International Affairs Online
Full-text working and position papers, books, and journals, from international affairs research institutes.
•International Political Science Abstracts
Citations to articles from international political science periodicals, 1989 to present.
•PAIS International
100 bibliographic and full-text databases and journals in four primary editorial areas: natural sciences, social sciences, arts & humanities, and technology.
•Political Science: Sage Fulltext Collection
Full-text of 25 journals published by SAGE and participating societies, some journals going back 24 years, encompassing over 10,000 articles. It covers such subjects as General Political Science, Peace / Conflict Studies, International Relations, and Area Studies.
Psychology
•PsycARTICLES
The full text of articles from 60 journals, 49 of them published by the American Psychological Association.
•PsycINFO
PsycINFO indexes the entire universe of psychology journals, dissertations, books, etc., and includes links to full text for all of PsycARTICLES--plus, links to the full text for any journals that are among the 30,000+ online journals that the library subscribes to.
Religion
•ATLA Religion Database
Articles, essays, and book reviews on all major religious faiths and denominations.
•Index Islamicus
Literature on Islam, the Middle East and the Muslim world since 1910.
•Index to Jewish Periodicals
Citations to English-language articles, book reviews, and feature stories in more than 160 journals devoted to Jewish affairs.
Science & Health
•Agricola
•Animal Behavior Abstracts
Journal articles, papers, and field and laboratory summaries relating to animal behavior, 2006-present.
•Engineering Village
Citations and some abstracts for engineering journal articles, conference papers, and web sites.
•Environment Index
Citations to articles on the environment from scientific, legal, and popular journals, 1950’s- present.
•Health Reference Center Academic
Citations, some full text journal articles and health-related pamphlets, and entries from selected reference publications relating to health and allied health.
•PrimateLit
Citations to journal articles and other scholarly materials on nonhuman primates, 1940-present.
•PubMed
National Library of Medicine's comprehensive database of citations to medical journal articles, with links to UMass-subscribed full text, 1966-present.
•Science.gov
Organizes access to agriculture, computer, health, energy and other current scientific information from U.S. government agencies.
•ISI Web of Science
Diversified scholarly information in the sciences.
Articles from journals in medicine and allied health fields.
•Zoological Record
Citations to periodical articles and other scholarly literature on zoology, biochemistry, behavior, ecology evolution, and genetics, 1864-present.
More
•UMass Libraries Database Locator
Use this locator to access more than 100 additional online databases. |
Alternative databases
These databases become especially useful as you narrow the focus of your research by allowing you to search a subject in depth from the perspective of a particular discipline.
- Alt-Press Watch
U.S. alternative newsweeklies, covering issues like the environment, labor, public policy, and the peace movement.
- Ethnic Newswatch
Articles from the newspapers, magazines and journals of ethnic communities in the United States.
- Gender Watch
Articles from scholarly journals and magazines about masculinity, feminism, homosexuality, and gender roles.
- UMass Libraries Database Locator
Use this locator to access additional online databases.
Popular commercial search engines
Use search engines like these to search public-domain websites for research-quality information on your topic. In many cases, the material found through these indexes is either not copyrighted or of low quality. Be judicious in selecting sites. Use your favorite search engine or select from these major search engines:
Wikipedia -- A Note: Wikipedia is not a search engine but a large and extremely popular, often-cited online encyclopedia. Like Google and Yahoo, however, the information is not professionally monitored. Built on the wiki design, it allows readers to edit, add to and monitor its content. Visit Wikipedia, read the Wikipedia entry on Wikipedia, or read a scholarly article on Wikipedia as Participatory Journalism. But also beware misinformation. An American student recently invented software capable of tracing Wikipedia edits to their sources. What did he discover? Edits were often made by individuals representing institutions with a vested interest in the information promulgated. Because of the many errors Middlebury College professors found in student papers citing Wikipedia, the college's history department recently banned its use. Even Wikipedia itself gives advice on Researching with Wikipedia. Our suggestion: use Wikipedia for an overview of your topic and a source of other potentially useful sites, but do not cite it as a direct source of information unless you've found at least two other reliable sources corroborating the information.
Google Tips: NYT writer David Pogue interviewed Google executives and staff members and discovered tips and tricks for narrowing a Google search. You can find them here.
|
