Databases to help you find and research a topic
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One SearchUnified discovery service that searches the library catalog, article databases, electronic resources, digital collections and more from one search box.
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Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new windowA fulltext database spanning academic disciplines with coverage of popular press and scholarly publications, including peer-reviewed journals.
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CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window
Contains original, comprehensive reports and analysis on issues in the news. CQ Researcher is part of CQ Collections.
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Statista This link opens in a new window
Statista is one of the leading statistics companies on the internet. With a team of over 200 statisticians, database experts, analysts, and editors, Statista provides users with an innovative and intuitive tool for researching quantitative data, statistics and related information.
This database includes an AI powered tool. For more information see the Statista Research AI information page.
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Google - Use LimitersYou can limit to government sites using .gov or educational sites by using .edu. Example: site*.edu "smoke-free campus" would search all university and college websites for mentions of these keywords.
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Topic GuidesLook through other topic guides created by librarians at UM. From "Contextualization at UM" to "Human Experimentation & UFOs," we cover a lot of ground.
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The Daily MississippianBrowse the DM newspaper archives for topic ideas.
Information Timeline
| Time: | Day of event | Days later | Weeks later | Months later | Years later |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Sources |
Television, radio, web
|
Newspapers, TV, radio, web
|
Popular and mass market magazines |
 Trade magazines and scholarly journals |
 Scholarly journals, books, conference proceedings Reference sources such as encyclopedias |
| Type of information | General: who, what, where (usually not why) | Varies, some articles include analysis, statistics, photographs, editorials, opinions |
Still in reporting stage, general, editorial, opinions, statistics, photographs Usually no bibliography at this stage |
Research results, detailed and theoretical discussion Bibliography available at this stage |
In-depth coverage of a topic, edited compilations of scholarly articles relating to a topic General overview giving factual information Bibliography available |
| Author | Journalists | Journalists | Journalists: usually not specialists in field | Specialists and scholars in the field | Specialists and scholars in the field |
| Audience | General public | General public | General public to knowledgeable layperson |
Scholar, specialists, students |
General public to specialists Scholars, students, laypersons |
| Locating tools | Web search tools, social networks | Web search tools, newspaper and periodical databases | Web search tools, newspaper and periodical databases | General and subject-specific databases |
Library catalog, general and subject-specific databases Library reference collection |
Credit: Virginia Tech Libraries