Social Ecology 195 – Dickerson Julia Gelfand
Field Study Science Library 228
Winter 2007 jgelfand@uci.edu ; 949-824-4971
This handout is a review for how to find scholarly articles containing empirical research methodology and coverage in the popular media using resources at the UCI Library. The assignment for your field study course tasks you to write a research paper in which you cite both an empirical research and scholarly article and something from the popular press/media.
Your departure point should be the UCI Library Website. There are also Subject Guides for each Social Ecology Department which indicates a range of subject-based databases which will index the scholarly journal literature. In addition I recommend that you consider consulting the Subject Guide for News and Newspapers for access to the popular press, in order that you can compare scholarly articles with the popular journalism and general articles.
Selective appropriate article databases for most Social Ecology undergraduate research includes any of the following resources:
1. PsycINFO - social & behavior sciences; social, developmental, clinical, health psychology - covers journals, books, book chapters and dissertations - full lifespan and multicultural coverage which can be specifically searched for employing empirical methods and containing data by selecting "Empirical Study" in the Methodology criteria- Use the Tutorial when seeking additional assistance.
2. Sociological Abstracts - social issues & problems
5. Environmental Sciences & Pollution Management
6. ERIC - education; full lifespan
7. PAIS International - public affairs
These databases just listed above are all on the Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA) Illumina platform where one can search all databases concurrently and de-dupe the multiple coverage or redundant citations by choosing "Selective Databases" and then clicking on the databases one wants. However, when searching this way, one can not restrict the PsycINFO search to retrieving empirical articles only. If you search only one database at a time, you get higher relevance because you can refine the search strategy more specifically.
Sometimes full-text links are in the citation and other times you must click on the UC e-Link to determine what format we have access to the article.
Additional general databases that cover an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary subject approach and which cover academic, popular and trade publications include
1. Expanded Academic ASAP - in addition to scholarly coverage this database also includes more contemporary popular journal content, often available full-text
2. Lexis Nexis Academic Universe - this is a full-text database that retrieves content and includes only re-keyed text. You will want to use the "Guided News Search" and follow the three steps and make specify options for 1) "Select a News Category" - probably General News; then 2) "News Source" - probably "Magazines and Journals" and then 3) search strategy by selecting "Fulltext" - you will want to also set the date parameters appropriately since the default is six months.
Bibliographic Management Software - UCI now offers REFWORKS - which allows you to manage online by just registering your citations so that you can properly cite and recall your references and choose the format so that they are consistent. You can register by entering www.refworks.com and click on login at (there is no cost or installation required.
Additional highly academic and scholarly content is indexed in these databases:
1. PubMed - covers clinical medicine, allied & public health
2. Web of Science - very academic coverage combining 3 broad disciplines where the Social Sciences Citation Index or the Science Citation Index will give you significant long term indexing.
Again, the UC-eLinks icon will direct you to the fulltext content if it has been licensed for our collection. There are different formats of inclusion ranging from pdf to re-keyed content minus the images.
Current print publications, including newspapers as noted in ANTPAC are shelved in the Current Periodicals Reading Rooms at both the Langson and Science Libraries by call number.
Other Basic Reference Tools:
1. Opposing Viewpoints - is a full-text database that covers popular and scholarly content on controversial social topics.
Finding your content: if the UC eLinks do not take you to fulltext content, there is a chance that it may be available in print and you can check ANTPAC or MELVYL by title of source, for holdings and the call number. The online journal collection is quickly expanding but there are many titles only available in print at UCI.
For additional assistance, you have several choices: