LibGuides: BOS 101: Creole Boston: Articles on Your Topic

Library Search

Want to discover everything that the library has on your topic? Try searching for your topic in Library Search, which simultaneously searches across most of the library's resources.

Search for Articles on Your Topic in These Databases

The links below will take you to general databases where you can search for both popular and peer-reviewed articles on your topic.

Academic OneFile
A comprehensive scholarly database offering full-text, peer-reviewed articles across physical sciences, social sciences, technology, medicine, engineering, arts, and literature.
Academic OneFile provides extensive coverage of scholarly journals and academic publications across multiple disciplines. The database emphasizes peer-reviewed content while including select news magazines and other periodicals. Its broad scope makes it suitable for both undergraduate and graduate research. This resource is particularly valuable for interdisciplinary research and accessing current academic scholarship.
Academic Search Ultimate
A comprehensive database of scholarly journals, magazines, and newspapers covering nearly all academic subjects, making it an ideal starting point for research in any field.
Academic Search Ultimate is a comprehensive database of scholarly journals, magazines, and newspapers covering nearly all academic disciplines. The collection includes both peer-reviewed and general interest publications, with content dating back to 1865. It offers extensive full-text access to academic literature across the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and more. This database serves as an excellent starting point for research projects in any subject area.
America: History and Life with Full Text
The primary database for research on United States and Canadian history, offering comprehensive coverage from prehistoric times to the present.
America: History & Life provides abstracts and full text for articles, dissertations, and book reviews related to North American history and culture. The database includes content from 1964 forward, with English abstracts for foreign language articles. Coverage spans social, cultural, political, and economic history. This resource is essential for historical research, academic writing, and understanding North American historical developments.
CINAHL Complete
The most comprehensive nursing and allied health research database, essential for healthcare education and practice.
CINAHL Complete provides full text access to hundreds of nursing and allied health journals, plus books and evidence-based care sheets. The database covers over 5,000 journals with extensive indexing. Content includes clinical innovations, patient care protocols, and healthcare management. This resource is crucial for nursing education, research, and clinical practice.
ERIC
The primary database for education research, providing comprehensive coverage of education literature and resources.
ERIC (Education Resources Information Center) contains over 1.5 million records of education-related documents and journal articles. Content includes research reports, curriculum guides, conference papers, and professional literature. Coverage dates back to 1966. This database is essential for education research, policy analysis, and teaching practice.
APA PsycInfo
The premier database for psychological research, covering international literature in psychology and related behavioral and social sciences.
PsycINFO provides comprehensive access to psychological literature from over 1,900 journals across 45 countries. The database covers academic, research, and practice literature in psychology and related fields. Content includes sophisticated indexing by psychological concepts and methodology. This resource is essential for in-depth research in psychology and behavioral sciences.
SocINDEX with Full Text
The world's most comprehensive sociology research database, covering all sub-disciplines and related areas.
SocINDEX with Full Text provides extensive coverage of sociology and related social sciences literature. The database includes journals, books, and conference papers with some content dating to 1908. Coverage includes author profiles and specialized sociology indexing. This resource is essential for social science research and education.

Developing Search Terms

The first step in picking a topic is to brainstorm by asking yourself a few questions. What do you already know about this topic from your course readings? Are there similar ideas that you might want to explore? What are the key concepts that you're interested in pursuing?

Once you've spent a bit of time answering these questions, you can take the concepts you've identified and use the keywords and phrases to start searching for information. Keep in mind that you'll need to build a base of knowledge before you can write effectively.

Database Search Techniques

Databases respond best to keyword searching. To search efficiently, turn your research question into a keyword search:

Research Question: Would increasing the minimum wage alleviate poverty?

Search One: (Search with keywords connected by “and”):
minimum wage and increase and poverty

Search Two: (Truncate some of the keywords using *):
minimum wage* and increas* and poverty

Truncate keywords where applicable. Truncation uses the asterisk (*) to end a word at its core, allowing you to retrieve many more documents containing variations of the search term. Truncation can also be used to find the singular and plural forms of a term. Example: teen* will find teen and teens.

a table showing how search results change if you add and asterisk to the end of the words teen, nurse, and violence. If the word ends in an 'e,' remove the e and replace it with an asterisk.