Using Library Databases for Articles and Other Sources
When you do research for an assignment, you will think about the types of sources you need to support your topic. While the internet has many sources you can use, research assignments may require more academic or scholarly sources. Academic sources are written by instructors, other researchers, professors, and experts in that field. They usually have more complicated language and provide references or other sources they use to support their topic in the form of citations. Academic sources can most easily be found in library databases than on the internet.
Academic Databases To Use for Articles, Editorials, Contexulaized Documents, and Media
You can find academic databases on the GCC Library website by:
- Go to the GCC Library website.
- Under Research Help, select "Databases A-Z".
- Find the suggested databases for your assignment:
- OneSearchLocate books, articles and more in the Glendale College Libraries.
- ProQuest
Peer-reviewed/academic articles in addition to newspaper, magazine, and trade journals from all subject areas.
- JSTORIncludes full-text articles from academic journals, open research reports, Artstor images, and primary sources, supporting research and teaching across the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.
NEW for Fall 2023: Access has been expanded through the JSTOR Archival Journals and Primary Sources Collection; all Artstor content has been migrated to the JSTOR platform. - US Newsstream (Proquest)News sources including newspapers, newswires, blogs, and news sites.
- JSTOR ImagesA comprehensive image database for educational and scholarly use. Artstor images are now hosted on the JSTOR platform.
- Social ExplorerUse Social Explorer to visualize and interact with data, create maps, charts, reports and downloads. Instructions: https://campusguides.glendale.edu/socialexplorer
How To Find Academic Articles in a Database
If you have a topic you would like to explore, you will want to develop keywords to search the library databases. You can create keywords by determining the main ideas in your research question or topic.
Research Topic Example:
I want to find resources to support my argument that social media causes negative body image in women.
From my topic, I need to look at WHAT is important, WHO I'm talking about, and WHERE is it happening.
My keywords can be: WHAT: body image; WHO: women; and WHERE: social media
Note: We can put body image and social media in quotation marks to search them as phrases: "body image" AND women AND "social media"
Example Search in the ProQuest Database:
- From the library webpage, click on A-Z databases.
- Find the ProQuest database on the left side of the page under "Recommended Databases", or by clicking on the "P" letter.
- In the advanced search page of ProQuest, enter your keywords in the search box, in my example body image, women, and social media. Use AND to connect these ideas and find them together, or you can type each term in one box and add more boxes if you need. Put body image and social media in quotation marks to search them as phrases. You can also check the full-text and peer-reviewed options and modify the date to get the full-text of peer-reviewed articles from the last two years. Moreover, you can select editorials in the "Document type" menu to get editorials.
- Below are your search results. You can limit the results by other available options. Click here to go directly to the page below.
- Click on any of the titles to access the full text. Remember to use the cite, email, print, and save options for easier access at a later time. Click here to go directly to the page below.
How to Find Editorials in Databases
To find editorials as your document types, simply select "editorials" in the "Document type" menu at the bottom of the Advanced Search page of the databases like ProQuest or US Newsstream.
These videos from ProQuest Research Companion provide guidance on how to find information for any research project.