Research Guides: Current Issues: All-Purpose Starting Points

So, you're looking in to a current (maybe controversial) topic!

This guide has some starting points to help introduce you to some specific timely topics, but don't feel limited to just these. Our current issue databases (Opposing Viewpoints, CQ Researcher, and Issues & Controversies) contain lots of info, lots of great resources, and even some nice browsing interfaces to help you think of a topic when you're totally undecided.

Current Issue Collections:

These databases focus on current and controversial issues and provide introductions to the topics and collect a variety of related sources to further your research. Great starting points!

Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new window
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Provides topic overviews as well as collects a variety of sources, including statistics, reference materials, journal articles, news articles, images, and audio broadcasts.
CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window
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Full-text, balanced, comprehensive journalistic reports and analysis of current and controversial issues of the day.
Issues & Controversies This link opens in a new window
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Full-text articles from different points of view on important issues in today's news, plus statistics, images, related court cases, and more.

What is...? Look it up!

Don't take ideas and terms for granted -- take a moment to do some simple, one-word searches in a resource like Credo Reference to read some background information. You never know what ideas you'll generate.

Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
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Useful when you're starting out on a research project. Do simple searches to find topic introductions in a variety of subjects. The mind map tool will help you discover related ideas and terms.

E-Books

Spotlight on Current Events by David E. Newton (Editor)
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Collection: EBSCO eBook Collection (1 copy)
ISBN: 9781440870620
Published: 2019
Comprising essays on a variety of topics such as immigration, gun control, abortion, race relations, the environment, and gender, and curated by a veteran scholar, this collection gives readers a go-to resource on multiple contemporary world issues.

Search the Library Collections

A Note on Information Sources

This guide presents a variety of links to both LSC collections and the open web as starting points -- but of course it's not an exhaustive list of every possible place you could search!

Find and access the library's online resources through the Research Databases page. Off-campus access requires the 14-digit library barcode from the back of your student ID. (Don't have it yet? Request a barcode number online.)

Google Scholar is a special search engine for scholarly works. It's great tool, but that's in addition to the library databases, not instead of. Scholarly articles tend to be behind paywalls, and even Google can't give you access. As well, there are predatory journals out there (with low publication standards) that Google doesn't exclude from its results.

Google Scholar Guide
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