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 peer-reviewed titles in the social sciences, humanities, general science, multi-cultural studies, education and more.
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.
MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
Coverage is international and includes 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 professionally fact-checked and footnoted reports on the most current and controversial issues of the day.
Statista This link opens in a new window
Statistics and studies gathered by market researchers, trade organizations, scientific publications, and government sources, includes access to 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