ENGL 127 Research Writing: Social Sciences (Moreno)

This is a guide for Michael Moreno's ENGL 127 with a focus on Urban Studies.

Find Scholarly Books, Book Chapters, and Articles

Find Scholarly Journal Articles

Use a range of strategies to find the best scholarly articles for your essay!

  • Search in multidisciplinary databases to find relevant sources from a range of perspectives.
  • Use individual databases, especially Academic Search Complete, to help you identify useful subject terms.
  • Explore Library Databases by Subject. We have some subject-specific databases you might find useful.
  • Once you have effective search terms (your keywords and subject terms) search in all Holman library databases at once with One Search. 
  • Search with Google Scholar and borrow with InterLibrary Loan
  • Search with WorldCat and borrow with InterLibrary Loan

Multidisciplinary Databases at Holman Library

Holman Library One Search

Keep in mind that the One Search defaults to full text only. Check the box include sources that are not full text to expand your search and use ILL to borrow.

Discover Holman Library Databases by Subject

Online

Google Scholar Search

Find Scholarly Books

Books can be scholarly too, but you need to ask and assess: Is this scholarly?

Find print & ebooks:

Go right to ebooks (which is a good bet for scholarly books):

Questions to Ask to Assess if a Book is Scholarly

Books can be scholarly too! How can you tell? 

A scholarly book will: 

  • Be written by an expert or experts in the field (PH.D., M.D., etc preferred)
  • Usually present new research or analysis of previous research
  • Often be printed by a University Press
  • Written for an academic audience and purpose, rather than a popular audience
  • Include extensive references to other scholarly work

While you can limit a search for articles to scholarly (peer reviewed) journals, you cannot do the same with books. 

You can, however,

  • Use the library’s online catalog to look for scholarly books: 
  • Read the record for the author and publisher. Are their credentials academic?
  • Many of our scholarly books are eBooks. That gives you a chance to check for:
    • Author's credentials (and are there multiple authors even?)
    • Publisher's credentials
    • Academic language and subject matter
    • In-depth analysis
    • In-text citations
    • Thorough and exhaustive references 
  • Most of the world’s library catalogs are available at www.worldcat.org
  • Use WorldCat to search for scholarly books we don't have at Holman Library. Use InterLibrary Loan to borrow scholarly books and articles from other libraries. You can also look online at what's available at local universities like PLU, UPS, UW, UW Tacoma, etc.

Sample Search

Using Database Limiters

When searching for articles in library databases, you can limit your search to only scholarly journals:

 Example of how to find scholarly journals in Academic Search Complete library database:

 


Example of how to find scholarly journals in ProQuest Combined Database

Enter your search terms, and click the orange search box. See the image below.

 

Subject Terms

Sometimes it's hard to know what search terms to use. Let the databases help. Browse Subject Terms to find the most relevant and precise search terms.

Strategy 1:

Do a keyword search and review / look for subject terms under the articles.

search AND subjects


Strategy 2:

Explore possible subject terms in the limiter.

subjects


Strategy 3:

Browse the Thesaurus.

ASP-subject-browse-housing