Considerations
Prompt:Identify an ethical issue/dilemma in your academic major or professional field of interest, and offer your stance on it in the form of a narrow, thoughtful, and well-supported argument.
What are ethical issues or dilemmas in your academic major or professional field of interest? For example professional sports. Which sport? What aspect related to being ethical?
Search Tips
Once you have identified your research questions generate a list of words that are related to your topic:
Use AND, OR, NOT to connect your phrases/keywords
to locate both morality AND norms
to locate either word discourse OR commentary
NOT will retrieve the first word, debate NOT argument
Keywords and phrases for violence: violence, bullying, peer pressure
Keywords and phrases for schools: school, high school, middle school, primary education
Keywords and phrases for video games: electronic games, electronic toys, video games, games
Sample keyword searches for a database:
violence and schools and electronic games
Now check to see if it is too specific, if it is, work toward a general focus. This will help you generate a list of keywords, or concepts related to your topic.
Keywords
travel, tourism, e-commerce, "mobile devices", smartphones, United States,vacations, digital travel, etc....
Use AND, OR, NOT to connect your phrases/keywords
to locate both smartphones AND travel
to locate either word U.S. OR United States
to locate (the first word) vacation NOT trip
* truncation symbol
travel* travels, travelers, traveling, traveled
Tips for Evaluating Sources
In the research process, evaluating sources is vital.Consider the following questions in order to effectively evaluate and gain a more critical understanding of your sources.
- Does the author or publisher endorse political or religious views that could affect objectivity?
- Is the author or publisher associated with a special-interest group, such as Greenpeace or the National Rifle Association, that might present only one side of an issue?
- Are alternative views presented and addressed? How fairly does the author treat opposing views?
- Does the author’s language show signs of bias?
- What is the author’s central claim or thesis?
- How does the author support this claim—with relevant and sufficient evidence or with just a few anecdotes or emotional examples?
- Are statistics consistent with those you encounter in other sources? Have they been used fairly? Does the author explain where the statistics come from? (It is possible to “lie” with statistics by using them selectively or by omitting mathematical details.)
- Are any of the author’s assumptions questionable?
- Does the author consider opposing arguments and refute them persuasively?
- Does the author fall prey to any logical fallacies?
Tips for Evaluating Sources
Research and Documentation in the Electronic Age, Fifth Edition, by Diana Hacker and Barbara Fister.
http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/resdoc5e/tips-for-evaluating-sources.htm
Research Databases
Here are a few databases to begin your research:
- Communication Source This link opens in a new windowIncludes articles from peer-reviewed journals and trade magazines covering mass media, marketing, communications, and related topics.
- EBSCO Business Source Complete This link opens in a new windowThis database provides articles from business journals, magazines and newspapers including the Harvard Business Review, McKinsey Quarterly and many others.
- Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson)Social Sciences Full Text™ provides access to a wide assortment of the most important English-language journals published in the social sciences. This resource provides detailed indexing for over 625 periodicals dating back as far as 1983—nearly 400 of which are peer-reviewed.
- Arts & Humanities Full Text This link opens in a new windowThis database features hundreds of titles covering Art, Architecture, Design, History, Philosophy, Music, Literature, Theatre and Cultural Studies.
- HeinOnline Law Journal Library This link opens in a new windowHeinOnline is an ever-expanding, comprehensive, image-based collection of legal periodicals.
- Business Abstracts with Full Text (H.W. Wilson)Business Abstracts with Full Text™ offers a multitude of business magazines and scholarly journals: this comprehensive database contains the full text of articles, product evaluations, interviews, biographical sketches, corporate profiles, obituaries, surveys,etc...
- ProQuest Research LibraryProQuest Multiple Databases is a multi-disciplinary index. It simultaneously searches dozens of subject areas, indexes thousands of general and scholarly titles.
- Film & Television Literature Index with Full Text This link opens in a new windowFilm & Television Literature Index with Full Text is the definitive online tool for film and television research.
- ProQuest Criminal Justice Database This link opens in a new windowProQuest Criminal Justice is a comprehensive database supporting research on crime, its causes and impacts, legal and social implications, as well as litigation and crime trends. In addition to scholarly journals, it includes correctional and law enforcement trade publications, crime reports, and other material relevant for researchers or those preparing for careers in criminal justice.
- PsycINFO This link opens in a new windowAbstract and citation database of scholarly literature in psychological, social, behavioral, and health sciences. Includes journal articles, books, reports, theses, and dissertations from 1806 to present.
- Music Periodicals Database This link opens in a new windowIndexing, abstracts, and much full-text coverage for music periodicals since 1874.
- ProQuest TelecommunicationsWhether youre looking for the latest news on WAP technology, following market penetration of new technologies, or gathering information about the key players in this field, ProQuest Telecommunications helps you stay one step ahead.
- Philosophy Database This link opens in a new windowThis full-text journal and dissertations database is specifically designed for researchers of all aspects of the interdisciplinary field of Philosophy. Philosophy Database contains the full-text of more than 160 philosophy scholarly journals as well as more than 1,000 modern and influential dissertations. Content covers the period 1860 to the present and is updated on a regular basis with new issues and new journal titles.
- JSTORA growing full text collection of core social science, humanities, and science journals. Some backfiles date back to the early 1800s. Fields covered include: anthropology, ecology, economics, education, finance, mathematics, philosophy, political science, sociology, literature, biology.
Data
- Statistics & DataResearch Guide for Statistics & Data.
More Databases
Here are a few databases to begin your research:
- LGBT LIfe with FulltextLGBT Life is the premier resource to the world's literature regarding Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Transsexual issues. Comprehensive coverage includes traditional academic and lifestyle.
- Gender WatchGenderWatch is a full text database of publications that focus on the impact of gender across a broad spectrum of subject areas. Subjects covered include: business, education, literature and the arts, health sciences, history, political science, public policy, sociology, gender and women's studies and more.
- Alternative Press IndexThe API is a bibliographic database (with links to full-text) of more than 368,000 journal, newspaper, and magazine articles from over 300 international alternative, radical, and left periodicals.
- Left IndexFocused on the political, social, economic and cultural issues of the Left. The database indexes more than 150 journals focused on the political, social, economic and cultural issues of the Left. The journals are thoroughly reviewed for relevant scholarship and research.
- Women's Studies InternationalThis is an index to the core disciplines in women’s studies and feminist research. Coverage includes more than 586,600 records and spans from 1972 to present. Over 2,000 periodical sources are represented.
- SPORTDiscus This link opens in a new windowComprehensive database for sports & sports medicine literature. Includes international literature, conference proceedings, audiovisuals and more. Coverage dates back to 1985.
- Web of Science This link opens in a new windowInterdisciplinary collection of journal articles, conference proceedings, and books. Collection of seven online database: Conference Proceedings Citation Index, Science Citation Index, Social Sciences Citation Index, Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Index Chemicus, Current Chemical Reactions, and Book Citation Index. Coverage is 1900-present.
- Black Studies CenterThe Black Studies Center provides access to several resources at once: Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience, International Index to Black Periodicals (IIBP), 10 historical African American newspapers, Black Literature Index, 100 oral history videos in History Makers, and Black Abolitionist Papers (1830-186
- Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson) (EBSCO) This link opens in a new windowEducation database (including administration, teaching methods, and curriculum)
- Environment Index This link opens in a new windowA comprehensive database to journal articles covering all aspects of environmental policy and politics.
- Chicano Database This link opens in a new windowA major bibliographic database for topics in the humanities, social and behavioral sciences on Mexican-Americans and Chicano and Latino Studies.
- America: History & Life with Full Text This link opens in a new windowThe definitive index to articles and other literature (books, dissertations, book reviews, etc.) covering the history and culture of the U.S. and Canada, from the 15th century to the present. Indexes nearly 1,800 journals from 1860s to present, including all key journals in the discipline, state and local history publications, and selected articles from scholarly journals in the social sciences and humanities.
- China-Latin America Finance Database This link opens in a new windowThe Inter-American Dialogue's new online China-Latin America Finance Database is the most up-to-date source of information on Chinese lending activity in Latin America and the Caribbean.
- Engineering Database This link opens in a new windowThis database provides unmatched discipline-specific coverage spanning thousands of publications, many in full text.
- PubMed Central This link opens in a new windowFree digital repository of publicly available full-text scholary journal articles in biomedical and life sciences. Articles are free to read without a subscription.
- ProCon.org This link opens in a new windowThe website's mission is to promote critical thinking, education, and informed citizenship by presenting controversial issues in a straightforward, nonpartisan, primarily pro-con format.