First Steps
The 1Search search box on the top right corner of OSU Library's home page is a great place to start your research. Choose 1-2 important keywords to start your search process.
To learn all about searching with 1Search, click here for a step-by-step guide.
Lexis Nexis
Lexis Nexis is an efficient way to find editorials and opinion pieces from the published media.
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LexisNexis Academic
Comprehensive index to newspaper and magazine articles, radio and TV news program transcripts, legal material and other reference sources.
Coverage Dates: - Varies by title
Tools for Citation Linking
Following citation trails are one of the best ways to track a scholarly conversation. Scholars "talk" to each other by referencing their colleagues' books and articles in their own work. Here are two powerful, online tools you can use to find out which articles and books are the most discussion-worthy:
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Web of Science
The web version of Science Citation Index (SCI) and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI). The Web of Science accesses a multidisciplinary database of bibliographic information gathered from thousands of scholarly journals. The databases are indexed so you can search for specific articles by subject, author, journal, and/or author address. Because the information stored about each article includes the article's cited reference list (often called its bibliography), you can also search the databases for articles that cite a known author or work.
Science Citation Index 1970-present
Social Science Citation Index 1970-present
Concurrent Users: unlimited
Coverage Dates: 1970 - present -
Google Scholar
Uses the Google search engine to search for scholarly materials from around the world such as peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports. Google Scholar searches a variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities. Some articles are available in full-text through links to OSU's journal subscriptions.
Coverage Dates: coverage range - unknown
WR 222 Databases for finding scholarly information
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Academic Search Premier
Academic Search Premier provides full text for nearly 4,600 scholarly publications, including full text for more than 3,500 peer-reviewed journals.
Full-text and abstract/index: 1975-present
Concurrent Users: unlimited
Coverage Dates: 1975 - present -
JSTOR
An archival collection of journal articles that includes over 140 titles in the humanities, social sciences and sciences.
Coverage Dates: - Varies by Journal -
Project Muse
Project MUSE is an interdisciplinary collection of high quality, peer reviewed journals.
Coverage Dates: - Varies by journal -
Google Scholar
Uses the Google search engine to search for scholarly materials from around the world such as peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports.
Coverage Dates: coverage range - unknown -
Business Source Premier
Business Source Premier provides full text for nearly 3,300 scholarly business journals, including full text for more than 1000 peer-reviewed business publications. Coverage includes virtually all subject areas related to business.
Coverage Dates: 1886 - present -
Health Source
Health Source has two editions: Health Source: Nursing Academic Edition and Health Source: Consumer Edition Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition provides nearly 550 scholarly full text journals, including nearly 450 peer-reviewed journals focusing on many medical disciplines.
Coverage Dates: 1975 - present
Tools for Finding Scholarly Conversations
It can be really hard to see the "conversation" in scholarly articles. Here are some tools to help you identify the connections between scholars.
For all of these tools, be sure you know how to find the articles using the OSU Libraries collections - do not pay for sources we have for you, or can get for you!
AuthorMapper - this tool from the publisher Springer maps out where scholarly journal articles are being produced on your topic.
Springer Exemplar - this helps you see different terms in context - in which journals they appear, and in which fields.
CiteULike - This is a social bookmarking tool where scholars save their sources. You can see ratings, and groups, and draw connections.
Don't forget ScienceBlogs and ResearchBlogging, discussed in the dynamic web section to the left.
What is this page?
Finding News Online
On the web -
Try Newsmap - a visual browsing "skin" on top of Google News data.
Muckety - "exploring the paths of power and influence"
Subscription-based soures -
From the "databases" link on the library's webpage , you can use several powerful databases to search thousands of magazines and newspapers at once. Use the drop down menu at the top of the page to choose "Newspapers" and then choose one of the databases to explore. Lexis Nexis is always a good place to start.
How to use Lexis-Nexis to find an editorial or opinion piece on your topic.
How to use EBSCO databases to find an editorial or letter to the editor on your topic.
Searching the dynamic web (blogs, etc.)
Browsing
This is a short list of just a few of the social news media sites available. Most of these include blogs, comments, pointers to news articles and analysis. In other words, they provide a combination of opinion writing and more traditional journalism:
Note: the comment threads on these posts are user-generated. The quality of the comments range from inane to insightful. Language, etc. is usually not moderated.
The following two sites aggregate scholarly blogs, commenting on academic research, peer-reviewed research, and other topics. They can be searched, to find posts on a topic, or browsed by subject area:
Searching
Here is a search engine that will let you search the dynamic web. Use advanced features like:
- searching by link (to see pages that respond to a particular post or article)
- trend information (to track the conversation on your topic over time)
Check Technorati's "Authority" feature to see how influential a particular blog or post has been.
News Sources on Twitter
10 Twitter feeds for mainstream news
Newsmakers on Twitter
Centers for Disease Control emergency feed
United Nations Secretary General
Searching twitter
Twitter search: http://search.twitter.com
Monitter: search for real-time, trending topics
Twitter visualizations
Trendsmap - "Real time local twitter trends." Use this to see trending topics, mapped around the world.
15 Ways to Track Twitter Trends (Mashable)
Media Analysis & Criticism
Publications
American Journalism Review
(Audio) On the Media (National Public Radio)
Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) Understanding News in the Information Age
Fact-checking sites
PolitiFact.com - Truth-o-Meter
Watchdog sites
Some of these are non-partisan, and others have a clear point of view. Sometimes that POV is easy to see in the site's masthead ("we watch Fox News so you don't have to"). Other times, it's more subtle.
Look at the "about us" pages for more information.
Think Tanks
Think thanks (sometimes called Policy Institutes) are organizations dedicated to conducting research - usually in specific areas defined by their own mission or purpose. The research they conduct gets turned into white papers, position papers and recommendations to government and policy agencies.
This directory from the library at the Kennedy School of Government (Harvard) is very thorough.
It is important to understand that these are advocacy groups - they are working to further a particular agenda (usually clearly outlined on their webpages and in their materials). Make sure you understand the agenda before you use their work -- a quick search in Wikipedia is usually a good starting point (but don't forget to check the Discussion pages to see if there is disagreement or controversy).
