College Park Scholars
Discovery Projects

Web page created by Travis Johnson and Gerri Foudy, Social Sciences Team, UM Libraries
Instructor: Dr. Sungmoon Kim

The University of Maryland Libraries have many resources that will help with research for your Discovery Projects. If you need additional information, please contact Gerri Foudy, the Government & Politics Librarian, or speak with a Reference Librarian at McKeldin Library's Service Plus Information Desk.

Table of Contents

• Finding Secondary Resources (Books and Journal Articles)
  • Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources
  • Finding Books and Documents in the UM Libraries Catalog
  • Finding Scholarly Journal Articles
  • News and Current Events Sources
• Primary Sources
  • U.S. Government Documents & Maps
  • The Maryland Room
  • Data and Statistics
• Finding Experts
• Presenting Your Research
  • Preparing an Annotated Bibliography
  • Properly Citing Sources/Avoiding Plagiarism
  • Poster Presentations

Generally, those doing a literature review on a particular topic will begin with a research database or with searching for books in the library catalog. Databases are searching tools that contain abstract and index records, and sometimes full text, of journal articles, books and other published materials.

The keys for doing a literature review are very simple:

• Come up with the right search query (or queries).
• Search in the right place.
• Review what you've found, refine your topic and your search, and repeat.
• and keep your results well organized.

Within ResearchPort, use the "subject category" scroll box to get started -- any academic field you're interested in is likely to be represented, including criminology, sociology, psychology, political science, economics and the other social sciences, hard sciences and humanities. That will provide you with a listing of the most useful databases for research in that subject area.

If you're working on something more multidisciplinary, or if you don't know what subject(s) it might fall into, you'll probably want to start with the general/multidisciplinary resources.

When you find articles of interest in any of the databases, use the button to see whether that article is available electronically, or in print in the library.

Finding Books and Documents in the UM Libraries

Search the online catalog for books and documents on your topic. Start with a "words/anywhere" search.
Example: Cyprus and nationalism
Example: Chechnya* and crisis

Once you have found some relevant records by using a "words anywhere" search, you can use the subject headings in the records to find more materials.
Example: legitmacy of governments
Example: Cyprus -- International status -- History -- 20th century

You must also use the catalog to find out whether the Libraries subscribe to a particular journal. Use the "title beginning with" for the journal title (not the article title).
Example: International Studies Review

More on how to use the catalog and Finding Library Items Using Call Numbers

Finding Scholarly Journal Articles

Try to identify some major concepts (keywords) to use in your searches, for example: Palestin* and relations and "United Nations".
More information on using keywords and boolean logic

Many databases now have the option to choose to search for only "scholarly" or "peer-reviewed" or "academic" journal articles. Check to see if this is an option in the database you are using.

Note: To access subscription databases on campus, simply click on the links below. From off-campus click on the College Park link and log in to Research Port using your 14-digit campus identification number (on the back of your campus ID card) and your last name.

Some of the key databases you'll likely find most useful are: (this is just a small sampling)

• Academic Search Premier.
  This is a multidisciplinary database, including thousands of journals, many of them full text, that cover most academic subjects. Primarily academic journal and popular magazine articles.

• Ingenta
  Interdisciplinary database index of more than 20,000 journals, some available in full-text.

• General Science Abstracts.
  Covers a wide range of scientific topics such as astronomy, biology, chemistry, earth science, and health & medicine.

• PsycINFO.
  The key database for scholarly research in psychology.

• ERIC
  Major education database.

• INSPEC
  Core coverage of computing, electronics, and physics, with related coverage of materials science, oceanography, nuclear engineering, geophysics, and biomedical engineering.

• SocIndex.
  The primary database for articles in sociology.

• EconLit.
  The key database for scholarly articles in economics.

• PAIS International.
  Excellent database for public policy issues.

• Criminal Justice Periodicals.
  One of several strong databases for journal articles in criminology.

• Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
  Comprehensive database for political science journal literature.

• In Research Port, click on the "ejournals" tab at the top and type in the title of the journal that the article is from. This will tell you if it's available electronically, and which years are available.

• If it's not electronically available in Research Port, you'll need to check the library catalog to see if we subscribe to that journal (or own that book, etc.) in print. (Remember, when looking for a journal article, that the catalog keeps track of journals, not of specific articles -- use the journal title, not the article title, to see if we subscribe).

News and Current Events Sources

Note: To access subscription databases on campus, simply click on the links below. From off-campus click on the College Park link and log in to Research Port using your 14-digit campus identification number (on the back of your campus ID card) and your last name.

• Abyz News Links (Free resource)
  Links to over 15,600 newspapers and other news sources from around the world.
  http://www.abyznewslinks.com/

• Alternative Press Index
  Citations from roughly 380 alternative, radical, and left publications, which report and analyze the practices and theories of cultural, economic, political, and social change, from 1991 to the present.

• Ethnic Newswatch
  Bilingual (English/Spanish) database of 200 publications of the ethnic, minority and native press.

• Keesing's Record of World Events Online
  Culled from the world's press and information services, Keesing's distills political, economic and social events into concise, detailed reports for the years 1960 to the present. You can narrow your search by region or country and by year.

• Lexis-Nexis Academic
  Wide range of news, political, legal, business, and reference information in full-text format, including full-text of the Washington Post and the New York Times.
  

• World News Connection
  Full-text summaries and translations from foreign newspapers and news services.
  

Primary Sources

Data and Statistics

• World Development Indicators (WDI) Online
  Provides direct access to more than 550 development indicators, with time series for 200 countries and 18 country groups from 1960, where data are available. Data export options in Excel or ASCII. Data includes social, economic, financial, natural resources, and environmental indicators.

• Historical Statistics of the United States
  Historical Statistics of the United States has long been the standard source for quantitative indicators of American history. Includes statistics from over 1000 sources.

• SourceOECD
  The online library of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Comprises 20 book collections by theme, containing all OECD monographs and reports, most OECD periodicals, and the OECD statistical databases.

• UNDP Human Development Reports
  Global, regional, and national reports.

• Guide to Census 2000
  This guide is intended to assist you in finding Census 2000 data online.

• Euromonitor Global Market Information Database
  "Over 1 million demographic, economic and marketing statistics for 205 countries."

• Federal Statistics Guide
  This is a guide to statistics produced by the U.S. federal government.

• iPOLL (Roper Center)
  This databank is a comprehensive, up-to-date source for questions asked on U.S. nationwide public opinion surveys since 1935. It provides question wordings, response percentages, and full survey-level citations. RoperExpress, a data access tool for on-demand downloading of data in the Roper Center collection that are in ASCII or SPSS portable formats, is also available.

Finding Experts

• UM News Desk Experts Search
  Browseable and searchable database of campus experts on a wide variety of subjects.

• Washington Information Directory
  Contact information, descriptions, and organizational charts for over 10,000 federal, congressional, and state government offices, nongovernmental organizations, policy groups, and foundations. Ability to export contact information into letter templates and other formats, and to create your own profile of saved favorite documents.

• Ness, Immanuel. Encyclopedia of Interest Groups and Lobbyists in the United States. Armonk, NY: Sharpe, 2000.
  Includes information on group histories, current and future activities, finances, and bibliographies.
  LOCATION: MCKELDIN REFERENCE STACKS
  CALL NUMBER: JK1118 .N47 2000 vol. 1-2

• Political Advocacy Groups
  Kathleen Fountain, a librarian at CSU-Chico, has developed a comprehensive listing of links to U.S. lobbying organizations, arranged by subject area.
  http://www.csuchico.edu/~kcfount/

• Political Science Resources: Think Tank Directory
  "Think tanks" are policy research and advocacy organizations which usually have a political slant. This site from the University of Michigan Libraries gives an annotated list of links to think tank home pages. Most think tanks post research and position papers and other documents on the web.
  http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/psthink.html

• Washington Representatives. Washington, DC: Columbia Books, Inc., 2004.
  "A compilation of Washington representatives of major national associations, labor unions, governments, U.S. and foreign companies, registered foreign agents, lobbyists, lawyers, and special interest groups, together with their clients and areas of legislative and regulatory concern."
  LOCATION: MCKELDIN REFERENCE STACKS (Older editions in McKeldin Periodical Stacks)
  CALL NUMBER: JK1118.D581

Presenting Your Research

Properly Using Citations/Avoiding Plagiarism

• Documentation Guidelines for Citing Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism
• Citation Machine
  Click the type of resource you wish to cite, complete the web form that appears with information from your resource, and click "Make Citations" to generate standard MLA & APA citations.

Poster Presentations

• Effective Presentations from the Kansas University Medical Center, includes short online tutorials on creating an effective poster. It also has links to other poster-preparation sites.
• Creating Posters for Humanities and Social Sciences gives a good explanation of why posters are often the best way to communicate results of research or experiential learning in social sciences and humanities. It includes a diagram of typical poster layout.

• American Psychological Association (APA) poster presentation guidelines are summarized by Psi Chi, the national honor society in psychology.
• International Studies Association
• American Political Science Association .
• American Anthropological Association .

• Scientist's Guide to Poster Presentations McKeldin Stacks Q179.94 .G47 1999.
  Useful even if your poster isn't on a scientific subject, because the science community has done a lot of thinking about what makes a good poster.
• How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper . Available as an e-book through the Libraries' subscription to Netlibrary. Also available in hardcopy at EPSL Reference T11.D33 1998.