Subject Expert
Text or phone me at 509.818.0559
Office Hours:Wednesdays 9-11am, or by appointment - use Schedule Research Consultation link above.
Need to meet during the evening or weekend? Please text or email me to schedule.
Office: JFK Library U02C (upper floor, or just ask for me at the JFK Library Reference Desk)
Or Zoom https://ewu.zoom.us/j/97403645255
Browse Possible Topics
Not sure what topic you want to research? Seeing a list sometimes helps!
- CQ Researcher -- 1923-present This link opens in a new windowPublic policy magazine. Click BROWSE TOPICS at the top to see list.
The articles are quite detailed, like finding a lengthy Wikipedia entry. But they are written by (usually) journalists, and have a ton of suggested readings at the bottom.
If you use a CQ article as one of your sources, this is not one of the scholarly ones!
- TED Talks by TopicBrowse TED Talks
- Pew Research Center Topics"A detailed listing of Pew Research Center polling and demographic topics and subjects."
Pew Research does surveys and polls, so a useful list of possible topics, but also links to their related survey data on that topic.
Find Research on Your Topic
- Academic Search Ultimate (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new windowOffers millions of articles from over 18,000 scholarly journals and magazines, on virtually all academic subjects.
- Databases A-ZWhile Academic Search Ultimate is very large, it just scratches the surface of what is available in scholarly journals.
The library has access to over 200 databases. Choose a subject area to find a database for your topic.
Keywords and Database Searching
Keywords for Your Topic
Once you have determined your topic, use the topic to generate keywords to search the library article databases.
- Example: How can forests be best managed to prevent forest fires?
Keywords from topic - think of synonyms for your keywords, or any specific methods of forest management you ran across during your preliminary research
- Forest fires - wildfires
- Prevent - reduce, minimize
- Manage - management, prescribed burns
Don't feel like you have to spend a lot of time on synonyms. The library databases will help you determine other useful keywords.
Keywords to Search Terms
Use the Advanced Search (the default for EBSCOhost databases). This will help you break up your search.
- Put one concept per box. Use OR between the synonyms.
- Put exact phrases "in quotes"
- Use * to find any word beginning with the root form - manag* = manage, management, managing, etc.
If you have hundreds or thousands of results, use the limiters on the left to narrow the results.
Useful limiters:
- Date
- Source Types - can limit to scholarly sources, in EBSCOhost called Academic Journals
- Subject or Subject: Major Heading - narrow by subject tags given to describe the article
Emailing Articles
Once you have found results you like, you can email the articles to yourself.
Looking at the Search Results with brief records of all of the results?
- Click the Folder icon on the right to Save to a Folder.
- Once you have marked all the ones you want, click Go to: Folder View on the far right.
- Click Select / deselect all, then E-mail on the far right.
- Under Include when sending, click Citation Format and choose MLA 9th.
Looking at one full record?
- Click E-mail on the far right.
- Under Include when sending, click Citation Format and choose MLA 9th.
Saving Articles
If you are on your personal computer, you can directly download the PDF once you have opened it.
To get the MLA citation, you must be viewing the full record, and then click Cite on the far right. Choose MLA and copy/paste.
Is there a URL for the article?
In EBSCOhost databases, do not use the URL for the page in the browser! This is not a stable URL.
Instead, you can copy/paste the Permalink for the record for the article.
You must be viewing the full record, and then click Permalink on the far right and copy/paste.
