Scholarly Databases
Become familiar with Discipline Specific Databases covering this area:
Communication Source -- indexes more than 1,000 journals in the area of coummunication and media studies
Sociological Abstracts-- The international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences.
Psycinfo--Access to the scholarly literature, both books and journals, in the psychological, social, behavioral, and health sciences.
America: History and Life / Historical Abstracts--Access to articles covering multiple aspects of US history (prehistory to the present) and history of the world (1450 to the present).
These multi-disciplinary databases will help you find scholarly articles about your topic
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Articles+Articles+ searches through many of our Penn-subscribed journals, and brings you results all in one place.
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Google ScholarAccess to Google Scholar with Penn-only links to full-text articles. Once authenticated through Penn's proxy, full-text articles to which Penn Libraries subscribe will become available within the Google Scholar search results.
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JSTORJSTOR specializes in making available the back issues of journals in a wide variety of humanities and social science disciplines. (Some journals include the most recent issue, but many are for or more years behind.) You can search across every word in the entire database or within an individual article. Download articles as PDFs and save to your own computer or device.
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EBSCO MegaFILEGeneral, multidisciplinary periodical database, covering all scholarly disciplines, with many general and popular magazines, and news sources. Includes bibliographic citations with indexing and abstracts for more than 16,000 periodicals.
a selection of keywords and terms
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Boolean Searching (working with sets)
Test YOUR Research Skills
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Penn Libraries Ultimate Champion Skills Trainer TestDo you have what it takes to be a research champion? Try out this skills test and find out.
Keyword Searching
This document suggests a good method of crafting effective keyword searches:
Find background and context
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The Global Journalist in the 21st CenturyPrint: Annenberg Library - Reserve. PN4820 .G57 2012
Find this guide on the Web
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Link out to this guide on the Webyou may find it easier to have this guide open in a bigger window.
Why use this guide?
This Critical Writing Program guide will help you to:
- Read a citation
- Find books and articles using citations and keywords
- Choose the best scholarly resources for your topic
- Get personalized assistance!
APA Style Guide
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The OWL: APA General Formatting and Style GuidePurdue's Online Writing Lab (OWL) provides this guide to APA style, the most commonly used style to cite sources within the social sciences. This resource, revised according to the 6th edition, second printing of the APA manual, offers examples for the general format of APA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the reference page.
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APA style guide to electronic references by Call Number: follow link to download PDFISBN: 9781433807046Publication Date: 6th ed. 2012Adapted from the sixth edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association provides information on formatting electronic references in APA Style, including books, journals, and other electronically available resources. -
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association by Call Number: Van Pelt Library. BF76.7 .P83 2001ISBN: 9781557987914Publication Date: 2001Check-out the complete style manual from our library or one of our BorrowDirect or EZ Borrow partners.
How to Read a Citation
Book citations generally show a publisher and a city of publication and often an ISBN (13 digit number). Book chapters will include the title of the chapter as well as the name of the book. In examples below, note punctuation, italics, capitalization practices.
Model: Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Location: Publisher.
Calfee, R. C., & Valencia, R. R. (1991). APA guide to preparing manuscripts for journal publication. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Book chapter:
Model: Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year of publication). Title of chapter. In A. A. Editor & B. B. Editor (Eds.), Title of book (pages of chapter). Location: Publisher.
Example: O'Neil, J. M., & Egan, J. (1992). Men's and women's gender role journeys: A metaphor for healing, transition, and transformation. In B. R. Wainrib (Ed.), Gender issues across the life cycle (pp. 107-123). New York, NY: Springer.
Journal article citations have a journal/serial title in addition to the article title and article author. They will usually also show a volume and issue number, and may show a date, month, or season.
Model: Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume number(issue number), pages.
https://doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyy [URL or DOI]
Example:
Harlow, H. F. (1983). Fundamentals for preparing psychology journal articles. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 55, 893-896. [note--you may or may not have the DOI (direct object indicator)--which is a unique construction applied to online articles.]
Using Citations to Find Articles
If you have a complete article citation, search Articles+ on the Penn Libraries homepage to find the full text of your article..
No luck? That doesn't mean we don't have access to the article - it could be in print! Try using the PennText Article Finder as a next step.
To find the full-text of an article, enter the journal name into the PennText article finder. A pop-up box will give you options to access the article online, in print, or the option to request through interlibrary loan (or BorrowDirect/EZBorrow)
Using Citations to Find Books
If your citation is a book, use Franklin, the Library catalog. Franklin will help you find the library in which the book is located, and the call number.
You can search for a specific book by title, author, or ISBN. You can also do a keyword or subject keyword search to find books on a particular topic.
Other important resources for finding books:
- Other Libraries
- If the book is in "LIBRA"
- Reading Call Numbers - a visual guide from the University of Arizona Libraries
Information Literacy Librarian
Books and Articles Beyond Penn
The Penn Libraries provide multiple ways to connect with books and journal articles that aren't immediately available to you in print or electronically, including:
BorrowDirect -- books from our Ivy league partners and a few others including Stanford and University of Chicago
EZ Borrow -- books from our Pennsylvania Partners and a few others including New York University
Scan and Deliver / Interlibrary loan -- for journal articles, chapters in books, and materials not available through our partnerships.
Chat
Your Course Text
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A Global Standard for Reporting Conflict by Call Number: Penn Libraries e-bookISBN: 9780415630870Publication Date: 2013
A Selection of Other Books of Possible Interest
Use keywords from these titles to find more books on the topic. Checked out? Try making a request through our BorrowDirect or EZ Borrow options.
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Ethical Reporting of Sensitive Topics by Call Number: Van Pelt Library. PN4756 .E785 2019ISBN: 9780815348658Publication Date: 2019Explores underlying complexities that journalists face when covering difficult issues such as suicide, sexual abuse, migration, and violence. -
The European Handbook of Media Accountability by Call Number: online textISBN: 9781315616353Publication Date: 2017This handbook brings together reports on the status quo of media accountability in all EU member states as well as countries close to Europe, such as Turkey and Israel. -
Representing Mass Violence: Conflicting Responses to Human Rights Violations in Darfur by Call Number: Van Pelt Library. DT159.6.D27 S2548 2015ISBN: 9780520281509Publication Date: 2015Taking the case of Darfur, JSavelsberg analyzes more than three thousand news reports and opinion pieces and interviews leading newspaper correspondents, NGO experts, and foreign ministry officials from eight countries to show the dramatic differences in the framing of mass violence around the world and across social fields. -
Trauma Journalism: On Deadline in Harm's Way by Call Number: Van Pelt Library. PN4784.W37 M38 2011ISBN: 9781441105400Publication Date: 2011Takes a look at the emotional consequences of covering trauma on the victims, their families and loved ones, their communities, and on the journalists. -
The Cruel Radiance: Photography and Political Violence by Call Number: Fine Arts Library. TR820.5 .L55 201ISBN: 9780226482507Publication Date: 2010Susie Linfield argues that looking at such images--and learning to see the people in them--is an ethically and politically necessary act that connects us to our modern history of violence and the human capacity for cruelty. -
Chronicling Trauma: Journalists and Writers on Violence and Loss by Call Number: Van Pelt Library. PN4784.V56 U76 2011ISBN: 9780252036408Publication Date: 2011Underwood offers a conceptual and historical framework for comprehending the impact of trauma and violence in the careers and writings of journalist-literary figures from the early 1700s to today.
