WR 122 Erwert: Find Sources
Researching online education
The Science and Belief Project requires using at least three sources of information. College-level research involves more than a simple Google search, although a web search is a great way to start. This page includes information about conducting college level research on the web and in library databases.
Web research
A web search using Google, Duck Duck Go or another favorite search engine can retrieve excellent sources of information from universities, government agencies, respected non-profit organizations and other research institutions. It can also retrieve factoids, misinformation and commercial advertising posing as information, so search carefully. This video provides tips for finding quality sources online.
Reliable news sources
Find current event information from news sources that practice fact-based journalism. Some recommended sources:
-
New York TimesAward winning journalism, center-left editorial perspective.
-
US Major DailiesAward winning journalism, center-right editorial perspective. Access available through library database.
-
BBCInternational news
-
Portland Metro and Oregon Research: NewsPCC guide to finding local news sources.
-
Fake NewsPCC guide with tips on avoiding fake news.
Fact checking resources
-
Media Bias Fact CheckResource for determining media bias through research and consumer opinions. Media Bias/Fact Check also provides occasional fact checks, original articles on media bias and breaking/important news stories.
-
SnopesThe definitive web and social media reference source for urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation.
-
FactCheck.orgNonpartisan political fact checking from the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.
-
Politifact Truth-o-MeterNonpartisan evaluation of the accuracy of claims made by US political officeholders, candidates, consultants, advisers, special interest groups, and pundits.
Library databases
Library databases provide access to published articles from magazines, newspapers, and academic journals. Unlike some of the search results you will get from a web search, the published articles in database are almost always written by professionals and reviewed by an editor, which improves reliability. This 4 minute video offers tips for searching EBSCOHost, the library's largest article database.
Recommended databases
-
EBSCOhostSearch from a wide range of research databases for magazine and journal articles. Updated daily. View the EBSCOhost handout
Mobile URL: EBSCOhost Mobile -
Ethnic NewswatchFull text newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic minority and native press. Provides a rich collection of articles, editorials, and reviews with a broad diversity of perspectives and viewpoints. Also a good source of ethnic recipes. Coverage is from 1980 to the present. View the Ethnic NewsWatch handout
-
Opposing Viewpoints (Gale In Context)A one-stop source for information on current social issues. Includes viewpoint articles on both sides of an issue, topic overviews, statistics, primary documents, links to websites, and full text magazine and newspaper articles. View the Opposing Viewpoints handout [pdf]
-
Popular Magazines (Gale OneFile)Features full text coverage of the top 1,000 most searched magazines across Gale's InfoTrac. Current events, sports, science, health and more.
Searching Databases
This video offers tips and tricks to efficiently search databases for the information you are looking for.
From Yavapai College Libraries.