Finding Secondary Sources
Browsing the stacks in Morris Library can be extremely helpful when you are looking for additional sources for your research. Most books related to this subject area can be found on the 3rd floor of Morris Library and fall under the following Library of Congress classifications:
HQ
HV
JK700s
R131 - 687: History of Medicine
RA643
The library catalog uses specific language or "Subject Headings" to classify books. The phrases below are the most commonly used Subject Headings for this area of study:
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Bisexuals
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Gays
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Gender identity
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Gender nonconformity
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Lesbians
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Queer Theory
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Transgender
Basic Search Tips
- Place quotation marks around keyword phrases
"trench warfare"
"Iranian Coup"
- Capitalize Boolean logic connectors (AND, OR). Found under Advanced Search option.
narrative OR plot
"American Involvement" AND World War I
- A title search may identify items that have matching words in their chapter titles, contents lists, and abstracts.
- America: History and Life This link opens in a new window
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Index of scholarly literature covering the history and culture of the U.S. and Canada, from prehistory to the present.
- ATLA Religion Database This link opens in a new window
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A resource for religious and theological studies. Provides bibliographic records for topics such as biblical studies, world religions, church history, and religion in social issues. (Coverage: 1949 --)
- GenderWatch This link opens in a new window
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Full-text collection of international journals, magazines, newsletters, regional publications, special reports and conference proceedings devoted to womens and gender issues. (Coverage: mid-1970s --)
- Health Affairs (Journal)Includes journal articles, policy briefs, and multimedia
- HeinOnline Academic This link opens in a new window
Image-based government document and legal research database. Extensive coverage of U.S. statutory materials, congressional documents and treaties. Also includes all of the world’s constitutions, collections of classic treatises, and presidential documents. Coverage of U.S. goverrnment publications is comprehensive back to inception, and all titles are exact replicas of the official print publication from the U.S. Government Publishing Office. A large assortment of international resources are also available.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Provides access to many millions of journal articles, books, images, and primary sources in 75 disciplines.
Artstor images incorporated into JSTOR as of 8/1/2024.
- PubMed This link opens in a new window
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A free resource providing access to biomedical and life sciences literature. Contains millions of citations and abstracts, but does not include full-text articles. However, links to the full-text are often present from other sources, such UD subscribed titles, publisher websites, or PubMed Central. To access articles from UD subscribed titles you must be a UD student or staff member.
- Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new window
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Indexes the international literature of sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. (Coverage: 1952 --)
- Women's Studies International This link opens in a new window
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Bibliographic database for womens studies and feminist research. A valuable resource for many disciplines, including sociology, history, international relations, humanities.
What is grey literature?
Grey literature is information produced outside of traditional publishing and distribution channels, and can include reports, policy literature, working papers, newsletters, government documents, speeches, white papers, urban plans, and so on.
This information is often produced by organizations "on the ground" (such as government and inter-governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations, and industry) to store information and report on activities, either for their own use or wider sharing and distribution, and without the delays and restrictions of commercial and academic publishing. For that reason, grey literature can be more current than literature in scholarly journals.
However, because grey literature (usually) does not go through a peer review process, the quality can vary a great deal. Be sure to critically evaluate your source.
For an extensive list of the types of documents that might be considered grey literature, see Document types in grey literature (from GreyNet International).
Where to search for grey literature
To search across the websites of governments and organizations, use the resources below.
Another way to find grey literature is to identify organizations that might be publishing this type of information on topics that you're interested in and then to search their websites — paying close attention to website sections with names like "Documents", "Reports", and "Library". Consider government agencies, non-profits, professional associations, research institutes, and other organizations, based on the research you have already done.
Using Google to search for grey literature
Use Google's site limits to only search a government or institution's site or top-level domain, for instance use site:.gov to limit your search to US government sites. Use site:.org to limit your search to organizations. This technique paired with keywords in Google is a quick way to locate grey literature. Example search: site:.gov universal free meals
Google Custom Searches
Type your search terms into these pre-built searches to limit results to specific organization types.
NGO Search
NGO Search is a Google Custom Search that searches across hundreds non-governmental organization (NGO) websites. NGO Search is a project of the International Documents Taskforce (IDTF) and the Government Documents Roundtable (GODORT) of the American Library Association (ALA). This is a spreadsheet of NGOs included in the project.
IGO Search
International governmental organizations (IGOs) are organizations made up of more than one national government—examples include NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and the WHO (World Heath Organization). The governments are the members. IGO Search is a Google Custom Search that searches across IGO websites. It is a project of the International Documents Taskforce (IDTF) and the Government Documents Roundtable (GODORT) of the American Library Association (ALA). Here is the growing spreadsheet of IGO urls included in the search.
Non Government Associations
- The Well ProjectThe Well Project is a non-profit organization whose mission is to change the course of the HIV/AIDS pandemic through a unique and comprehensive focus on women and girls across the gender spectrum.
- World Health Organization (WHO)Explore by Countries, Health Topics and Data for comprehensive data on health in countries throughout the world
Government Organizations
- Centers for Disease Control (CDC)A U.S. Federal Agency (under the Department of Health and Human Services) devoted to protecting public health and safety. The site includes information on infectious disease, food borne pathogens, environmental health, occupational safety and health, health promotion, injury prevention, and educational activities designed to improve the health of United States citizens, and much more.
- MedlinePlusEasy-to-read materials on various health topics, drugs and supplements, and medical encyclopedia
- U.S. Department of Health & Human ServicesThe U.S. Department of Health & Human Services operates the NIH, CDC, SAMHSA, and the FDA, among other health-related organizations. The website contains disease-prevention guides for consumers.
- CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive reporting and analysis on “hot topics” in the news. Each single-themed report is researched and written by a seasoned journalist, footnoted and professionally fact checked. (Coverage: 1923 --)
- Global Newsstream This link opens in a new window
Recent global news content, as well as archives. Content from newspapers, newswires and news sites in full-text format. Provides large collections of news from the U.S., Canada, Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America and Australia. (Coverage: 1980 --)
- HeinOnline Academic This link opens in a new window
Image-based government document and legal research database. Extensive coverage of U.S. statutory materials, congressional documents and treaties. Also includes all of the world’s constitutions, collections of classic treatises, and presidential documents. Coverage of U.S. goverrnment publications is comprehensive back to inception, and all titles are exact replicas of the official print publication from the U.S. Government Publishing Office. A large assortment of international resources are also available.
- New York Times (NYTimes.com) This link opens in a new window
The New York Times Online includes the same articles and images that appear in the print edition plus additional resources including images, videos, audio, graphics and data. Crosswords not included. Content may also be accessed via the free New York Times app. Content not available via tablet. (Coverage: Limited access to 1923-1980; Full access from 1981 to the present).
- National JournalResearch candidate information, campaign finance, and more on current politicans. You can find that information in Racetracker and Almanc.