What kind of sources do I need?
How do I find peer-reviewed scholarly sources for my assignments?
1. Think about how you could approach your topic - what disciplines might be writing about your topic? Consider searching in those related databases. What might be the most appropriate keywords to try searching on your topic? Could different words in different databases find you different information?
2. Search the databases or individual journals below using keywords related to your topic to find relevant articles (find additional databases here):
Health/sciences:
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PubMed
PubMed is the U.S. National Library of Medicine's (NLM®) database of biomedical citations and abstracts. It includes MEDLINE, which covers over 4,800 journals published in the United States and more than 70 other countries primarily from 1966 to the present.
Open Access
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EMBASE
EMBASE is a major biomedical and pharmaceutical database indexing international journals in the following fields: drug research, pharmacology, pharmaceutics, toxicology, clinical and experimental human medicine, health policy and management, public health, occupational health, environmental health, drug dependence and abuse, psychiatry, forensic medicine, and biomedical engineering/instrumentation.
Subscribed multi-user unlimited access | 1947-Current
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PsycINFO (American Psychological Association; APA - EBSCO)
PsycINFO is an abstracting and indexing database of more than 2000 journals (approximately 3.3 million records) devoted to peer-reviewed literature (journals, books and dissertations) in the behavioural sciences and mental health.
Permitted Use | Subscribed multi-user unlimited access | 1887-Current
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Earth, Atmospheric, & Aquatic Science Database (ProQuest)
The Earth, Atmospheric, & Aquatic Science Database is an interdisciplinary resource of quality, curated A&I combined with full-text content from scholarly journals, trade journals, conference proceedings, and other sources. The coverage extends Meteorological & Geoastrophysical Abstracts (MGA) by providing a sizable element of full-text access along with comprehensive discovery through the extensive abstracts and indexes structured using controlled vocabulary managed by expert editorial teams. For coverage of aquatic science, the collection features the entire range of bibliographic records from Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA).
Content Types: Scholarly Journals, Trade Journals, Books, Conference Papers and Proceedings, Government & Official Publications, Magazines, Newspapers, Other Sources, Reports, Tables, Wire Feeds, Working Papers, Video and Audio.
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BIOSIS citation index
BIOSIS Citation Index is the world's most comprehensive reference database for life science research. It includes cited references to primary journal literature on vital biological research, medical research findings, and discoveries of new organisms. It also covers original research reports and reviews in traditional biological and biomedical areas.
Business:
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Business Source Ultimate (EBSCO)
Business Source Ultimate provides full text for more than 7,200 scholarly business journals and other sources. Coverage includes virtually all subject areas related to business. BSU provides full text (PDF) for more than 350 of the top scholarly journals dating as far back as 1922.
Permitted Use | Subscribed multi-user unlimited access | Fulltext: 1922 - present. Abstracts and indexing: 1984 - present
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ABI/INFORM Complete (ProQuest)
Indexing, abstracts, and full-text of scholarly and trade journal articles in business, management, and trade. Also covers dissertations, SSRN working papers, market reports, industry reports, business cases, local and regional business information, and global and trade news. Includes full text of The Wall Street Journal and digital images of selected key business journals from the first issue to the present.
ABI Help Guide
Permitted Use | Subscribed multi-user unlimited access
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EconLit (EBSCO)
Produced by the American Economic Association, EconLit is a bibliographic database that indexes and abstracts more than 700 international economic journals back to 1969. The database contains over one million records and is considered the foremost source for journal articles, books, dissertations. book reviews, and working papers in the field of Economics.
Subscribed multi-user unlimited access | 1969-Current
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Canadian Business and Current Affairs (CBCA) Business (ProQuest)
Please note: CBCA Business is now searchable as part of the larger CBCA Complete collection. Canadian Business and Current Affairs (CBCA) Complete is the nation's largest and most comprehensive bibliographic full-text reference and current events database. Available through the ProQuest Web interface, CBCA Complete combines full text and indexed content from all four CBCA database subsets (Business, Current Events, Education, and Reference). Subject coverage is comprehensive and information is available from the broadest range of Canadian sources anywhere.
NOTE: In certain instances ProQuest has decided to omit particular 'articles' from full-text access due to copyright restrictions or because the item has not met their criteria for being an 'article' (ie. too short, a letter, not attributed to an author, etc.).
Permitted Use | Subscribed multi-user unlimited access
Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences:
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America: History and Life (EBSCO)
"America: History & Life is the definitive index of literature covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada, from prehistory to the present. With indexing for 1,700 journals from 1964 to present ... The database also includes citations and links to book and media reviews."--Database information page.
Subscribed multi-user unlimited access | 1964-Current
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Project Muse
"Project MUSE covers the fields of literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, and many others." UNB subscribes to almost 400 eJournals, and provides access to select Open Access eBooks.
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JSTOR Current Collection
In addition to being an archive, JSTOR offers current access to a range of titles from various publishers. UNB has access to current and archival content for almost 50 of these journals.
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ERIC (EBSCO)
ERIC is a "bibliographic database that contains education-related documents and journal articles." The EBSCO interface also provides some full text linking.
Subscribed multi-user unlimited access | 1966-Current
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Sociological Abstracts (ProQuest)
Sociological Abstracts "covers the world's literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behaviorial sciences."
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SocINDEX with Full Text (EBSCO)
SocINDEX with Full Text is the world's most comprehensive and highest-quality sociology research database. Its extensive scope and content provide users with a wealth of extremely useful information encompassing the broad spectrum of sociological study. The database features more than 2.1 million records with subject headings from a 20,000+ term sociological thesaurus designed by subject experts and expert lexicographers. SocINDEX with Full Text contains full text for 890 journals dating back to 1908. This database also includes full text for more than 850 books and monographs, and full text for over 16,800 conference papers.
Permitted Use | Subscribed multi-user unlimited access | 1908-Current
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ProQuest political science
ProQuest Political Science gives users access to hundreds of leading political science and international relations journals, providing full-text of many core titles indexed in Worldwide Political Science Abstracts. In addition, over a thousand recent full-text doctoral dissertations on political science topics are included, together with working papers, conference proceedings, country profiles, political news and other sources.
ProQuest Political Science covers the literature of political science and international relations, including such topics as comparative politics, political economy, international development, environmental policy, and hundreds of related topics.
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Worldwide Political Science Abstracts (ProQuest)
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts provides "citations, abstracts, and indexing of the international serials literature in political science and its complementary fields, including international relations, law, and public administration / policy."
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Women's Studies International (EBSCO)
Covers the core disciplines in Women's/Gender Studies, including history, sociology, political science, public policy, international relations, humanities, business and education. ALso relevant to family violence research,nursing and other disciplines. Contains Women's Studies Abstracts, Women's Studies Bibliography Database and Women's Studies Librarian.
Permitted Use | Subscribed multi-user unlimited access | 1972-Current
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Philosopher's index (EBSCO)
The Philosopher's Index "is a bibliographic database with informative author-written abstracts covering scholarly research in the fifteen fields of philosophy, published in journals and books since 1940."
Multi-disciplinary:
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Academic Search Premier (EBSCO)
Academic Search Premier is a multidisciplinary resource that "provides journal coverage for most academic areas of studies."
Permitted Use | eResources record | Subscribed multi-user unlimited access | Full text: 1990 - present. I
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Scopus
Scopus, a multidisciplinary online resource, will be invaluable to students and faculty in various fields of study within the sciences, health sciences and the social sciences. Scopus offers full-text linking, abstracting-and-indexing information including peer-reviewed titles from international publishers, Open Access journals, conference proceedings, trade publications, quality web sources.
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Google scholar
Google Scholar searches a subset of the Web that Google has classified as "scholarly literature". They do not publish a list of chosen sites, and they do not state how often sites are checked. Some important sources are not covered at all. Thus, Google Scholar alone should not be relied on for comprehensive research.
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INFORMIT Indigenous Collection
With a broad range of international Indigenous research resources brought together, the Informit Indigenous Collection offers a variety of content on both historical and topical issues within Indigenous studies. Readily available, the multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary framework encompasses anthropology, community development, cultural studies, economics, education, health, history, human geography, law and land rights, literature, politics and policymaking, (post)colonial studies, psychology, race studies, sociology and visual and performing arts.The Informit Indigenous Collection gives access to emergent and ground breaking research within the global community offering scope for critical international engagement and debate. With material from Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, North America and The Pacific which normally is not easily located in standard recourses, IIC is a platform for Indigenous worldviews.
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Canadian Business and Current Affairs (CBCA) Complete (ProQuest)
Canadian Business and Current Affairs (CBCA) Complete is the nation's largest and most comprehensive bibliographic full-text reference and current events database. Available through the ProQuest Web interface, CBCA Complete combines full text and indexed content from all four CBCA database subsets (Business, Current Events, Education, and Reference). Subject coverage is comprehensive and information is available from the broadest range of Canadian sources anywhere.
Permitted Use | Subscribed multi-user unlimited access
3. Scan through the results, reading the title/abstracts to find potentially relevant articles. Redo your search with different keywords if you're not finding what you want.
4. Find a few articles that look promising and skim read the introduction/conclusion of the full-text to decide if they're useful for your assignment.
If a PDF or link to the full-text isn't readily available, click on the link to see if we have it in our collection.
Why can't I find enough scholarly sources about current events?
How do I read scholarly articles?
Infographic: How to read scientific papers, written by Natalia Rodriguez for Elsevier.