Answered By: Elaine M. Patton
Last Updated: Aug 25, 2022     Views: 103

You have two broad options: Google/search engines (obviously) and the library databases.

Library Databases

Subject list from the Research Databases page

The research databases page is sorted into subject areas to help you discover which individual databases are most likely to support that area. Within each subject page, there is further organization by type (articles, e-books, etc), and the databases are listed in order of usefulness (as judged by the LSC librarians).

Portion of the Social Sciences articles databases shown, highlight the full description for the first database, and key parts of others to indicate the content type (peer-reviewed journals, magazines, newspapers) as well as subject coverage (like the humanities, communication, and multi-disciplinary).

Read the descriptions to get a sense of what type of content each database has. If you need to find scholarly articles specifically, note that some databases contain 0 scholarly content as we'd typically define it (like Credo or Newspaper Source) and some have a mixture (like Academic Search Complete). 

If you aren't sure which to use, ask a librarian!

When you click in to a particular database from off-campus, you'll be prompted to log in with your 14-digit library barcode to get access. Type it in with no spaces or dashes. The number begins with 231... 

If you don't have a barcode number, you can request one online. If you had one but have misplaced it, contact uplibrary-circ@lonestar.edu from your Lone Star email address and they can send it to you.

 

Google/Search Engines/Internet Sources

It's convenient, it's familiar... it also has a lot of dud articles out there that you need to filter out. A couple recommended strategies:

1. Limit your search to certain domains: .gov, .edu, .org

Add on to your search "site:.gov" (without quote marks) and you'll get back links that match your search terms that only come from government sites. You can also search specific sites in the same way: site:cdc.gov, site:lonestar.edu.

Google search bar with the text: covid-19 transmission site:.gov

This is a rule of thumb! Keep in mind, there are plenty of good .com sites out there, and plenty of bad .org pages (or .edus that you shouldn't use as sources)! If they were extra credit options on a test, .gov and .edu would +2 points, .org would be +1, and other domains would be +0 (not helping, but also not hurting anything).

  • .gov is restricted to US government sites. Domain registration is highly controlled.
  • .edu is mainly for university websites.
    • Check that you're not reading a student paper, however. Mine their references page, but don't cite them as a source themselves (unless, perhaps, you're reading a dissertation or theses).
  • .org is the least reliable of these three: it's limited to organizations, but it doesn't take much to put together some kind of organization. Organizations tend to form around a purpose, so be aware of their particular point of view for a given subject.

 

2. Evaluate the article and the site.

  1. Who wrote the article? Is there an author identified? Are any credentials stated? Can you easily learn more about the author?
  2. Do you recognize the site name? Is it someone major, like NASA, or something obscure you've never heard of?
  3. Look for copyright info, usually at the very bottom of the page. Who stands behind this site? Is it a university? Or is "John's Site" copyrighted by "John's Site" (i.e. self-published -- not a deal-breaker, especially for major organizations -- but it does hinge on the reputation of the author/publisher at that point). Check for an "About" or "Contact" page for more clues.
  4. What other articles does this site produce? Is everything on the same topic (suggesting familiarity if not expertise), or is there a wide range of topics and seriousness?
  5. Look back at your original article. Does it give citations for its information, either formally like you do in an essay, or informally stating "According to..." in the paragraphs? If it doesn't, think back to #3: we can probably trust what NASA says about Mars's atmosphere without extra citations, but why should we trust "John's Site"?
  6. We use more than one source when doing research for a reason. Investigate the claims of interest to you: do other sites say the same thing to corroborate the info? (Caution! You might see something in multiple places, but they're all referring to or re-posting one origin article. That doesn't add credibility.) 
    1. If you find a more obviously reputable website backing up the info claim, great! But also go ahead and cite that more credible site, anyway.
    2. Your argument is only as good as your sources, and "garbage in, garbage out." You will look more authoritative when your sources are more credible themselves.

Related Topics

Contact Us

Your Question
Your Info
Fields marked with * are required.