- Background Information
- Articles from LexisNexis Academic
- Is it Peer-Reviewed?
- Other Sources for Articles
- Legislation
Background Information
What are the official, non-official, and scientific terms associated with your topic? Who are the key players and are they pro or con? When did major events take place and has anything of note happened recently?
Google can lead you news items, press releases, government Web pages, and other sources for background information.
Your searches for articles from peer reviewed and scientific journals will be *greatly enhanced* if you take the time to search popular sources and note background information.
Articles from LexisNexis Academic
LexisNexis Academic includes newspapers, trade journals, and law reviews. A starting place for all topics for the Point/Counterpoint assignment. Library database, use Novell information to log in from off-campus.
A typical search might run something like this:
- Search statement such as genetically modified w/5 crop* w/5 patent*
- Add Legal sources to your search
- Set dates to Previous 5 years
Result categories that can be available in the sidebar: Newspapers, Industry Trade Journals, Law Reviews, etc.
Is This Journal Peer Reviewed?
The home page (or author instructions page) for a journal will usually report whether that journal is peer reviewed. If you're verifying the peer review process for several journals, it can quickly get tedious to locate their home pages and navigate each for this information.
Ulrich's Guide to Periodicals lists publication information, including review process, for journals, magazines, and newspapers published in the U.S. and around the world. Library database, use Novell information to log in from off-campus.
- Search for the title of your publication: Harvard Journal of Law & Technology
- Click into the journal title for more detailed information about it
- *If* the journal is peer reviewed, the Basic Description tab will include a note that the journal is "Refereed"
Other Sources for Articles
Not sure which system to search?
Web of Science is an interdisciplinary database of scholarly journals *not* included in the federated search (recommendation below). NO adjacency command (w/#) but does recognize other common search syntax, such as AND, OR, "search for this as a phrase" and truncat*
Type a search such as Framework Convention on Tobacco Control or FCTC. You may "search within" those results using the box at the upper left corner.
Try the books and articles search box on the Public Health Education Subject Guide. This is a federated search (sometimes called Multisearch in our library) across a variety of library subscriptions and free resources from various disciplines of potential use in public health. Searching across databases, you might sacrifice depth for breadth.
- Try a search such as genetically modified crops and (licens* or patent* or intellectual property)
- Show summary to review results by source
- Hit the title of a result for more information and often full text
Databases recommended for Public Health will likely be familiar to you already.
PubMed - Get fewer results by using the MeSH database (guide to recommended terms or subject headings).
Databases Recommended for Business are useful for searching trade journals for industry perspectives on controversial issues. Especially the following databases:
Google Scholar has been shown to provide adequate coverage of scientific literature.
Legislation
AFTER you have a good understanding of your topic from reading secondary sources, you may be interested in reviewing legislation or legislative publications on your topic.
LexisNexis Congressional - Some full text of publications from the U.S. Congress. The basic search will look for any reports, committee prints, legislative histories, or related documents that *might* have been published. Type a broad topic such as genetically modified crops.
North Carolina General Assembly - Use the "Bill text" search (lower right corner) to search through the text of bills for this or a previous legislative session. Type a topic such as water to see proposed and ratified legislation.
