Finding Secondary Sources
Basic Search Tips
- Place quotation marks around keyword phrases
"United States"
- Capitalize Boolean logic connectors (AND, OR).
narrative OR plot
"United States" AND Trade Partners
Items at UD appear first in the list of search results. Other items can be requested via interlibrary loan.
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Academic OneFile This link opens in a new window
A premier source for peer-reviewed, full-text articles from scholarly journals and other authoritative sources. Also includes thousands of podcasts and transcripts from NPR and CNN, as well as videos from BBC Worldwide Learning. (Coverage: 1980 --)
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Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Index of literature covering world history (excluding the U.S. and Canada) from the 15th century to the present. Subjects include world history, military history, womens history, history of education and more. Indexes 2,300+ academic journals in over 40 languages. (Coverage: 1952 --)
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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.
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PAIS Index This link opens in a new window
Covers public policy issues and emphasizes factual and statistical information. Print and electronic journals in the social sciences are indexed with particular attention to articles that bear on public policy, administration and legislation. Business topics are covered, with emphasis on economic factors, industry surveys, business-societal interactions and similar issues, rather than details of business operations. (Coverage: 1915 --)
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Project MUSE Journals This link opens in a new window
Full-text, scholarly, electronic journals in the arts, humanities and social sciences from many of the world's leading university presses and scholarly societies. (Coverage: 1993 or later to the present)
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Race Relations Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Citations to publications on race relations, including ethnic studies, discrimination, immigration studies, and other areas
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Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Indexes the international literature of sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. (Coverage: 1952 --)
Tips for Searching for Articles:
Finding articles within databases and journals is not the same process you would use to conduct a search in Google or an internet search engine. You cannot type in a question, but rather need to choose specific keywords and phrases to find results. These tips are similar to how you would search for material in DELCAT Discovery.
Helpful Ways to Search:
- Use quotations around a phrase to "tell" the database or journal that you want these words to remain together.
- Ex: "American exceptionalism"
- Think of synonyms to your keywords...Especially when conducting historical research, you may need to develop words and phrases that were used during that particular time period, rather than modern-day words.
- Ex: World War I; First World War; The Great War - All would give you different results!
- Use AND/OR to connect words, concepts, and phrases together to receive specified results.
- Ex: World War I AND United States
Use the Advanced Search option in databases and journals to narrow down by date, region, type of document, and more!