HONS 106: Honors Research Seminar II

Before searching the library databases, spend a few minutes brainstorming keywords and considering synonyms that describe the individual concepts within your topic. Developing a search strategy in this way can improve the effectiveness and efficiency of your search results.

LibSearch provides a single search box that allows users to search for books, audio-visual materials, journal articles, and other resources contained in many of the Library's databases.LibSearch is one of several databases that provide general or subject-specific coverage of an academic discipline or subject area. The screenshot below highlights some of the features of Library Search.

Databases A-Z
An alphabetical list of all library databases, with the option to search by subject area. Useful if a professor directs you to a specific database.
Research Guides (By Subject or Course Number)
Guides for doing research in a particular subject area (Art, Education, Social Work, etc.) or for a specific course. Think about the broad subject areas that your topic fits within.

Tips for Finding Books

• Academic libraries contain materials that support the curriculum, or what is taught and studied at the college or university.
• Most academic libraries use the Library of Congress (LC) Call Number System to organize their physical items.
• When you search for books, videos, or other materials in the library catalog (MnPALS), you find information about each item. This information is displayed in what's called a "record." For instance, a record for a book looks like this:

To find the book, you must look for it in the library using its Call Number and its location. In our example, we can see that the item is Available and is in the Main Collection - Basement. The call number, LC67.62 .M58 2010, translates to...

• Subclass LC -- “Special aspects of education” -- Shelved in alphabetical order
• 67.62 -- “Social aspects of education. Economic aspects of education.” -- Shelved numerically as a whole number, sometimes with a decimal
• .M58 -- (a.k.a. the Cutter line) author’s last name, “Mullen” -- Shelved alphabetically by the letter, then numerically as a decimal
• 2010 -- the year the book was published -- Shelved in chronological order

For all topics, excellent places to start:
First: Academic Search Premier (all topics) from EBSCO
Full-text articles in biology, chemistry, education, engineering, humanities, physics, psychology, religion and theology, sociology, etc. Tip: Click the check box to limit to Academic (Peer Reviewed) Journals.

Second: JSTOR
Provides access to scholarly journals in anthropology, ecology, economics, education, general science, history, literature, mathematics, political science, philosophy, and more. Some journals have "moving wall" access that does not include the most recent 2-5 years.

For topics related to art:
Art Full Text
A comprehensive resource for art information featuring full-text articles from more than 300 art periodicals plus high-quality indexing of over 600 periodicals and art dissertations.

For topics related to communications:
Communication & Mass Media Complete
The main database for Communication Studies and Mass Communications. Searches over 600 journal titles that support research in communication, mass media, linguistics, language learning and related fields of study.

For topics related to criminal justice:
Criminal Justice Abstracts
The premier source for finding scholarly articles and other information related to criminal justice.  Topics covered include: courts and the legal process; adult corrections; crime prevention and control strategies; crime, the offender, and the victim; juvenile justice and delinquency; and police.

For topics related to diversity and racial issues:
Ethnic NewsWatch
Articles from over 200 newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press. Provides in-depth coverage of a wide range of current and historical topics. Limit the Source Type to "Scholarly Journals" for peer-reviewed articles.
GenderWatch
Articles on topics like sexuality, religion, societal roles, feminism, masculinity, eating disorders, day care, and the workplace that support LGBT studies, family studies, gender studies, and women's studies with a unique interdisciplinary approach. Click the check box to limit results to "Peer-reviewed" for scholarly articles.

For topics related to education:
ERIC (EBSCO)
ERIC is the primary database supporting research in all areas of education, including psychology, administration, and library science.

For topics related to music:
Music Literature (RILM)
Covers all areas of music scholarship, including, concert reviews, recording notes, dance, anthropology, ethnomusicology, music theory, music therapy, instruments and voice.

For topics related to psychology (the study of how people behave, think and feel) :
PsycINFO
PsycINFO is the premier source for finding scholarly articles and other information relating to all aspects of psychology and related fields.

For topics related to sociology (the study of social life, social change, and the social causes and consequences of human behavior):
Sociological Abstracts
The primary database for scholarly articles in sociology, anthropology, social work, and related topics of study.

For topics related to business and economics:
Business Source Complete
Premium full-text content and peer-reviewed business journals covering all disciplines of business, including marketing, management, accounting, banking, finance and more.

EconLit
Index to scholarly articles and dissertations in economics and related fields. Updated monthly. Corresponds to the print index published as part of the Journal of Economic Literature.
Note: 1969 to present

For topics related to world history (excluding the United States and Canada):
Historical Abstracts
Search over 2,000 scholarly journals covering the history of the world from 1450 to the present (excluding the United States and Canada, which are covered in America: History and Life).

For topics related to the history of the United States and Canada (including military science):
America: History & Life
Search 2,000 scholarly journals on the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present (the rest of the world is covered in Historical Abstracts).

For topics related to political science:
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
The premier source for finding scholarly articles and other informaiton related to political science topics.

For topics related to science (including agriculture, astronomy, computer technology, environmental studies, and geography):
ScienceDirect
Search over 1,200 scholarly journals published by Elsevier. ScienceDirect is multisubject, but specializes in science. Note: We do not have full text access to all journals. 1993 to present for Academic Press journals; 1996 to present for Elsevier journals


For topics related to public health:
Health Source: Nursing/Academic
Index with fulltext for 550 scholarly journals covering many areas of medicine. Include the Lexi-PAL Drug Guide covering 1300 generic drug patient education sheets with more than 4700 brand names.
CINAHL Plus with Full Text (Nursing)
Search 3,000+ journals in nursing and allied health back to 1937; covers nursing, biomedicine, alternative/complementary medicine, consumer health, etc.

As you work on your research colloquium project, we encourage you to meet with a librarian for a research consultation. Research consultations are intended to give you in-depth assistance in identifying and locating the resources most useful for your project. Please complete the form on our Ask a Librarian page to schedule a consultation.

Learn, Evaluate, Cite: Resources from the Library on evaluating and citing information

SCSU's The Write Place writing resources

Citation Styles Old

Choose a citation style (APA, MLA, Chicago/Turabian, etc) and follow the guidelines for formatting your paper and references.
 

APA Formatting and Style Guide (2010 update) (OWL at Purdue) Provides examples of formatting papers, in-text citations, footnotes and endnotes, and reference lists in APA style. Updated according to the 6th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.

MLA Formatting and Style Guide (OWL at Purdue)
MLA (Modern Language Association) style is most commonly used to write papers and cite sources within the liberal arts and humanities, including English. This resource offers examples for the general format of MLA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the Works Cited page.

Manage your research and create bibliographies with a click of a button. Set up your account from an on-campus computer and then use RefWorks from anywhere.

How to export from Academic Search Premier to RefWorks

Mendeley
Mendeley is a free reference manager and academic social network that can help you organize your research, collaborate with others online, and discover the latest research.

• Guides and tools on how to use Mendeley
   

Zotero
Zotero is a free, easy-to-use, standalone software program that works with Firefox, Chrome and Safari. It allows users to collect, manage, and cite your research sources (similar to RefWorks).

• How to use Zotero

Google Scholar
Searches academic papers and other scholarly literature. Go to Settings and set SCSU as your "Library link" to get full text available through the library.
Some tips for searching Google Scholar:
http://guides.library.illinois.edu/c.php?g=347668&p=3835551

More tips:
http://www.umuc.edu/library/libhow/googlescholar.cfm

Information from Google about Google Scholar:

http://scholar.google.com/intl/en-US/scholar/help.html
 

Information about the "Cited by" function in Google Scholar:
http://academicguides.waldenu.edu/content.php?pid=225643&sid=1870041

On Library homepage, select Borrow, Request, Renew to find the Interlibrary Loan link:
http://www.stcloudstate.edu/library/borrow/interlibrary.aspx

• From the above link select Request an article for articles SCSU Library does not own. (For books SCSU does not own, select Request a book.)
• Login using your StarID and password.
• Fill out the required fields of the form. 
• Be sure to check the copyright agreement box.
• Select Submit Request. Watch your SCSU email for information about your request.

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