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DRGN 1000: Red Dragon Seminar The Cannabis Experiment: Policy Evolution in the States and Nation (Keel) Fall 2023 1000-12

Librarian: Mary Lynn Bensen

Finding Articles in Scholarly Journals Using Library Databases

Library databases list periodical articles, and frequently other sources, and be searched in various ways, including topic, author, and article title.  Databases can list popular periodical articles in magazines, scholarly articles in journals, and news articles in newspapers.

For academic research, it is often important to use peer-reviewed (or refereed) journals rather than popular magazines. Peer review is the process by which a journal article is evaluated by experts in the field. An example of a peer-reviewed journal is Policy Studies.  An example of a popular magazine is Time. To see a list of databases by subject, check All Subjects on the Databases page on the library website.

Note:  Databases include many articles and other sources that are not available in full text.  For such items, interlibrary loan is a service by which the library can request these items from other libraries.  For directions, see a reference librarian.

The following databases are in alphabetical order by title in A-Z Databases under the link Databases on the library website.

Database Covering Political Science

Political Science Complete

Indexes political science journals and other resources.

Selected Databases Covering Many Subjects, Including Political Science, History, and More

Academic Search Complete

Provides full text for selected scholarly journals and popular magazines across disciplines.

Ethnic Newswatch

Coverage includes full text of selected newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic and minority press.

 JSTOR

Provides access to the full text of journals in many subject areas. There is no full-text coverage for the last 3-5 years.  JSTOR also includes an image collection.

Project Muse

Provides full text of many journal articles in the social sciences and humanities.

Databases Covering History

America:  History and Life

            Coverage of the U.S. and Canada from pre-historical times to the present in historical journals.

Historical Abstracts

Covers the history of the world, excluding the U.S. and Canada, from 1450 to the present in historical journals.

Databases Covering Newspapers

News (Gale OneFile)  

            Includes national and international news sources and television and radio transcripts.

Nexis Uni

            Coverage of business and legal news in national and international sources.

New York State Historic Newspapers

            Includes coverage from a wide range of NYS newspapers, largely for events significant in NYS history.

New York State Newspapers

            Covers selected newspapers from smaller communities in NYS.

New York Times (For access, register on the NYT website.)

            Full newspaper coverage from 1851 to the present day.  Replaces the New York Times Archive.

Newspaper Source Plus

            Includes coverage of U.S. and international news, radio and television transcripts.