Guides: Social Action and Justice Colloquium SAAJ (Derrick): Databases & E-Resources

Essential Databases of Scholarly Articles

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Provides full text coverage to nearly 9,100 journals, including over 7,900 peer-reviewed titles in the social sciences, humanities, general science, multi-cultural studies, education and more. Full-text coverage dates back to 1985 and is updated daily.
Opposing Viewpoints in Context This link opens in a new window
A complete one-stop source for information on social issues. Users have access to viewpoint articles, topic overviews, statistics, primary documents, links to websites, interactive maps, videos, streaming audio, and full-text magazine and newspaper articles.
From immigration to stem cells to texting-while-driving, Opposing Viewpoints in Context delivers 13,000+ pro/con views, 1,000+ court case overviews, and thousands more topic overviews, biographies and profiles.
MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
An index of journal articles, books, and dissertations, the electronic version of the Bibliography dates back to the 1920s and contains over 2.5 million citations from more than 5,000 journals and series and 1,200 book publishers. Coverage is international and subjects include literature, language and linguistics, folklore, literary theory and criticism, dramatic arts, as well as the historical aspects of printing and publishing.
In addition, the MLA Directory of Periodicals and their proprietary thesaurus used to assign descriptors within the Bibliography are included.
CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window
Provides access to the most current and controversial issues of the day. Each single-themed, 12,000-word report is researched and written by a seasoned journalist, professionally fact-checked, and footnoted to facilitate further research. A feature called Hot Topics provides shorter reports on 20 of the most popular subjects.
Statista This link opens in a new window
Statista.com consolidates statistical data on over 80,000 topics from more than 22,500 sources and makes it available on four platforms: German, English, French and Spanish. Pepperdine's subscription includes access to the expert tools and the Global Consumer Survey .

Recommended Databases

Gender Watch This link opens in a new window
Databases that focus on women's issues and sometimes minority issues.
Atla Religion Database This link opens in a new window
Includes major theology and religious journals reflecting all major faiths, denominations and language groups. Beginning in 1949 although indexing for some journal titles extends back into the nineteenth century.
Communication & Mass Media Complete This link opens in a new window
Journals in communication, mass media, and other closely-related fields of study.

Evaluating Sources

Scholarly v. Popular

A scholarly publication is one in which the content is written by experts in a particular field of study - generally for the purpose of sharing original research or analyzing others' findings. Scholarly work will thoroughly cite all source materials used and is usually subject to "peer review" prior to publication.

POP aim to inform a wide array of readers about issues of interest and are much more informal in tone and scope. Examples include general news, business and entertainment publications such as Time Magazine, Business Weekly, Vanity Fair.

Note, special interest publications which are not specifically written for an academic audience are also considered "popular" i.e., National Geographic, Scientific American, Psychology Today.

A Popular and Scholarly take on the same subject...

Look at the attached articles from Peace and Conflict Studies and National Geographic about Ivory funding terror. how are similar, how are they different?

National Geographic

Peace and Conflict Studies
The Political Economy of Ivory as a Conflict Resource