Databases
Databases: your portal to research publications
The scholarly literature (also described as "refereed" or "peer reviewed") should be incorporated into your paper. However, availability of such literature will be dependent on your topic choice. If there is little published about your topic, other authoritative sources may play a larger role in your research (such as government websites and government publications).
The databases described below cover different types of literature:
- Academic Search Premier and Academic OneFile include newspapers and magazine articles as well as scholarly research literature.
- GeoRef covers the scholarly literature of geology specifically.
**Be sure you are using resources that meet the assignment requirements.
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Academic Search Premier
Multidisciplinary with some full-text. Covers some news, magazines, and scholarly literature.
Coverage Dates: 1975 - present -
Academic OneFile
Multidisciplinary with some full-text. Covers some news, magazines, and scholarly literature.
Coverage Dates: 1980 -
GeoRef
Index to U.S. Geological Survey publications, U.S. and Canadian Masters'theses and Ph.D. dissertations, journal articles, books, maps and government reports. Very little full-text coverage.
Coverage Dates: 1785 - present
Link to articles from databases
Look for this icon in the databases to connect to full-text (when available).
Style Guides - Citing in APA format
APA style is required for the Term Paper Assignment.
APA (American Psychological Association)
Book: Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
Call number: BF 76.7 .P83 2010 (available at Reference and in the circulating collection)
Online: APA Documentation from U Wisconsin
OR
Look for the APA Formatting and Style Guide under the "Research and Citation" section from The OWL at Purdue
Overview of Citing (why, when, etc)
For more information about citing your sources, check out the citing sources section of the library's research tutorial.
Course Instructor
- Dr. Kaplan Yalcin
Getting started: Term Paper Assignment
Finding books and articles:
Identify keywords and phrases from your topic as well as synonyms and related words. Most search engines, including library databases, work best with clearly identified one or two-word terms rather than sentences or sentence fragments. Start with what you know and incorporate new terms into your search strategies as you progress.
Example:
- If this was my topic: Discuss soil liquefaction risks in Oregon or Washington.
- I might break it down to: "soil" "liquefaction" "(Oregon OR Washington)"
- I might find that I need to expand or narrow my topic: Do I really want to talk about liquefaction in just Oregon OR Washington or do I want to address research on liquefaction (without geographic limiters)?
- Alternatively, I might find that I would rather talk about risks to urban or metropolitan centers in the PNW, without limiting to soil liquefaction.
- In other words, be creative when searching for sources on your topic and do not limit yourself with narrow terminology when starting your research paper.
Essential resources
Search for books and journal titles here.
- Tips for working from a book's catalog record, here.
Summit catalog
Search the catalogs of 36 regional libraries and request delivery of books that OSU does not own. Delivery typically takes 2-3 business days. You are notified by email when books arrive.
If you find a citation to an article online, in a research database, or from a reference list, check for the journal title in the ejournals list. These link directly to OSU Library electronic subscriptions. (tips for searching ejournals)
Recent earthquake research (from Web of Science)
This feed shows recent research discussing earthquakes or seismology (from the Web of Science database). It is not intended as a reading list or source list, but rather a place for ideas or inspiration for your term paper.
Last Update: October 08, 2009 16:42 | Tagged with: geosciences earthquakes pacific northwest
