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Welcome to the WGST 231 course guide. If you'd like help finding a peer reviewed article, please email me at jm3102@georgetown.eduand we'll setup a research consultation.
1. Identify your topic
Use class readings, newspaper articles, Wikipedia and online encyclopedias such as Credo Reference or Gale Ebooks (links below) to find out basic information about your topic. This will help you brainstorm keywords.
Includes Berkshire Encyclopedia of World History; Encyclopaedia Judaica; Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy; Encyclopedia of American Industries; Encyclopedia of American Religions; Encyclopedia of Bioethics; Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and Security; Encyclopedia of Ethical, Legal and Policy Issues in Biotechnology; Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World; Encyclopedia of Population; Encyclopedia of Religion; Encyclopedia of Sociology; Encyclopedia of the American Constitution; Environmental Encyclopedia; Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America; Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology; New Catholic Encyclopedia; New Catholic Encyclopedia Jubilee Volume; New Dictionary of the History of Ideas; St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture; and West's Encyclopedia of American Law.
2. Brainstorm keywords
Come up with keywords around your topic to start searching. When searching, you can play around with different terms to see how it affects your results. Try searching with broader terms vs. more specific. Pay close attention to the vocabulary that scholars are using when you come across articles (i.e. same-sex marriage, single-sex schools)
3. Search for scholarly articles
Put your keywords into the databases Genderwatch, HeinOnline and Academic Search Premier (links below). Pay attention to who wrote the article, what journal it was published in and when it was published. When you consider the results, you need to evaluate different articles in order to find one that best serves your purpose. You should spend time on the abstract of articles that might be of interest and then skimming before you decide on what you'd like to read. Try different words in different databases and see what you discover. Give yourself time to enjoy this process!
After you get your search results, filter by date and by document type. This way you can limit to articles from the last 3-4 years and "periodicals" as resource type.
One of the premier sources for legal and political information. Full-text law journals are a major part of the database, but HeinOnline also includes deep historical collections of U.S. federal government documents.
Titles digitized include the Congressional Record, the Federal Register, bills and public laws in the Statutes at Large, the United States Code, the Code of Federal Regulations, selected legislative histories, Supreme Court documents, Presidential documents, and more. Search the Sources of Compiled Legislative History database by Public Law or Bill number, from the 37th to the 107th Congress. The U.S. Federal Legislative History Title Collection has full text legislative histories on significant legislation in banking, civil rights, labor, digital rights, the USA PATRIOT act, and other selected laws.
This database includes scholarly journals, books, dissertations & theses, newspapers, magazines, etc. Interested in peer reviewed article? Click that filter on the left hand side of the screen.
Collection of articles from over 180 social science journals. Disciplines covered include: anthropology, area studies, community health and medical care, economics, family studies, gender studies, geography, gerontology, international relations, law, minority studies, planning and public administration, policy sciences, political science, psychiatry, psychology, public welfare, urban studies and more.
Indexes otherwise hard to obtain research and publications from public policy think tanks, university research programs, research organizations, and publishers. Each item includes an abstract and, where available, access to the full-text of the report and/or the homepages and electronic mail addresses of the authoring institution.