McNair Scholars
Web page created by Gerri Foudy,
Social Sciences Team, UM Libraries
Instructor: Dr. John Cordes
The University of Maryland Libraries have many resources that will help you conduct research at UM. 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 Sources
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.
Finding Books and Documents in the UM Libraries
The Libraries' catalog provides information about the holdings of all libraries in the University System of Maryland.To search all of the UM System libraries, click on "multi-campus search."
Books owned by other libraries in the system can be ordered at the computer for delivery to College Park (or elsewhere); click on the yellow "Request" button on the record's availability screen.
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: legitimacy 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
Using Research Port
Maryland subscribes to hundreds of research databases. Some of these include full text journal and magazine articles, but many are largely comprised of abstract and index records and citations. All of the databases are available through ResearchPortWithin 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.
Try to think, first of all, about who would be doing scholarly research in the area that interests you. A Psychologist? A Biologist? An Economist? If your research falls somewhat neatly into a subject area, you can use the research resources specifically for that subject, and get the best, most targeted results.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 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, simply click on the links below. If you are off campus, you will be asked to log in to Research Port using your 14-digit campus identification mber (on the back of your campus ID card) and your last name.
Some of the major interdisciplinary databases are:
- 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. - Science Citation Index/Social Science Citation Index.
Can use Full Search to find articles on a particular topic, OR articles that CITE an article that has useful information on your topic. - Ingenta
Covers over 20,000 periodicals from the arts and humanities, social sciences, and science and technology fields. - General Science Abstracts
Contains bibliographic coverage of over 265 leading journals and magazines in the sciences from the United States and Great Britain. - Social Science Abstracts
Indexing and abstracts include coverage of fields such as addiction studies, anthropology, economics, gender studies, gerontology, minority studies, political sciences, psychology and sociology. - Humanities Abstracts
Covers such academic disciplines as archaeology, art, art history, classics, film, folklore, journalism, linguistics, music, the performing arts, philosophy, religion, history, literary criticism and 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 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, simply click on the links below. If you are off campus, you will be asked to log in to Research Port using your 14-digit campus identification mber (on the back of your campus ID card) and your last name.
- 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. - EIU Viewswire Database
Good source for up-to-date information, news, and analysis on 195 countries. - 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. - 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.
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. - The Library also provides basic guides to citation for all the major styles and formats.
