Research Process

Find tabs above for Credo & Other Encyclopedias, a General Library Search, & for Journal Article Databases.  Selecting the best information resources from these databases to answer your research question depends on the depth of the information you need and the time frame you wish to explore. Ask yourself what kind of information you need:

• General or specific information?
• Narrative analysis or statistical data?
• Current or historical information?

Use the table below to help select the type of source that will best serve your purpose.  Remember that you will probably want to use more than one type to locate the wide variety of information that fully covers your research topic.

Online Databases

You'll find journal articles from a wide variety of publications by searching online databases.  Some databases are more general, and other databases are subject or publisher specific.  How do you decide which database indexes journals that are related to your topic?

• General Interest Databases are helpful for researching a general topic.  The publications indexed here cover the broadest range of topics and may include magazines and journals related to current affairs, literature, religion, social sciences, technology, medicine and many others.  An example is the Academic Search Database.  Other more specialized & academic general interest databases include JSTOR and Web of Science. 
• Subject-specific Databases are most helpful for in-depth research on a topic.  These databases usually contain only scholarly/academic journals or professional/trade publications and focus on a narrower subject area.  Examples include the Aerospace Database, Business Source (business and economics), CINAHL (nursing and allied health), and PsycINFO (psychology).
• Publisher Databases focus on the journals from a specific publisher.  Most publications indexed in these databases are scholarly/academic journals or professional/trade publications.  Examples include Elsevier ScienceDirect, Oxford University Press Journals, Sage Journals Online, SpringerLink, Taylor & Francis Online Journals, and Wiley Online Library.