Research - Assignment | Argument Proposal (Pena) - Research Guides at Lone Star College

What to Look For

Click the links on the table below to jump to the relevant part of this page to start finding research!

Types of sources, where to find them, and what benefit they bring to your research.
Source Type	Where to Look	When Do You Need It
Scholarly Journal Articles	Library databases, Google Scholar	Expert analysis tied to broader context and preceding research or documents the findings of new research. Very focused, specific analysis that also connects to the big picture implications. However, also slower to publish. Less likely to discuss Houston-specific issues.
News Stories	Library databases, Internet	Current events (or reports of old events that were once current). Anecdotal snapshots with some data or other context, but mostly not big picture. Non-expert authorship. More likely to discuss Houston-specific issues.
Magazine Articles	Library databases, Internet	Usually like news stories but with more depth, as the individual articles tend to be longer. More likely to discuss Houston-specific issues.
Statistics/Data	Internet, especially .gov domains	Basic factual information to give you demographic information, or help you show impact (X number of Americans are disabled, Y number of homes flooded in 2017, etc). You apply the context.
Books	Library databases (e-books), library catalog (print & e-books)	Lots of variety: some are scholarly and share characteristics with the journal articles, some are fluffier. Some go in-depth, some provide broad overviews of a subject. Depends on the book!

Jump to: Tips on Better Google Searches

Suggested Databases from the Library

Search [nearly] all the library collections, both digital and physical, with one search! Use filters to narrow your results down to just news articles or books.

If you know there's something very specific you want, or you're having a hard time narrowing the big search, you can go into individual collections.

Scholarly:

Academic Search Complete (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Multi-disciplinary database contains scholarly articles (look for the search filter) as well as news and magazine articles.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Complete historical full text of all issues of peer-reviewed journals in a wide range of humanities and social science fields. (pronounced jay-store)
Military & Government Collection (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Full-text journal articles and magazines on military and political topics, plus books, reports, government documents, etc.
Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Provides topic overviews as well as collects a variety of sources, including statistics, reference materials, journal articles, news articles, images, and audio broadcasts.
Communication & Mass Media Complete (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Full text from over 500 journals for communication, mass media, and other closely-related fields.

News & Magazines:

US Major Dailies (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
US Major Dailies provides access to The New York Times, Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Chicago Tribune. The content is available by 8 a.m. each day and provides archives stretching as far back as 1985.
Newspaper Source Plus (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Selected full-text from 30 US national and international newspapers and 200 regional papers, plus TV & radio news transcripts.
Academic Search Complete (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Multi-disciplinary database; full text of articles from over 5,300 journals, magazines and newspapers, plus image collections.
New York Times: Subscription Access This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Find both news and reviews as well as access to historical NY Times issues dating back to 1851.

First time user: To get access, you need to first register for an NYT account.
1. Click the link. You will have to enter your LSC library barcode.
2. Select Create Account and complete registration fields. Use your LSC email address!
3. Once you have an account, you may access NYTimes.com and NYT mobile apps like any subscriber, or go through this link but select "log in."

Note: Site passes will expire after 365 days. To renew, you will have to activate a new pass by repeating this process.

If Google Chrome shows a warning about this link, hit Ignore. You must use the proxy to get the special access.

Books:

Ebook Central This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Over 100,000 e-book titles covering a full range of academic topics. General reference works are also included.
EBSCO eBook Collection This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Search complete e-books. Read in browser, or create an account to download books to various devices.

Even More Databases:

Consider which disciplines apply to your specific topic when choosing your databases.

Research Databases (Main Page)

Databases (A-Z List)

Getting Better Results From Google

Research means more than just Googling some likely terms and picking something easy off the first page of results. Consider:

Besides keywords, there are an estimated 200 factors that affect Google's page rankings, including:

sites paying to promote their pages,
what computer and browser you're using,
when the site was last updated,
how the site is structured,
what other people have clicked on or linked to,
and even what kind of pages you've searched for in the past.

Notice that "accuracy" or "reliability" don't make the list.

You can streamline the quality of your Google searches by focusing on government (.gov) and education (.edu) domains in your results.

.gov is the most strict to register -- non-government entities can't get it!
.edu is mostly universities, but you'll sometimes come across some K-12 entities with this domain.
- The big thing to watch out for is that you're not finding a student paper or project that's been posted on the university domain. Presumably their work is pretty good since it's being shown off publicly, but undergrads are not yet academic experts in their fields (sorry).
.org can be good or it can be shady -- depends on the nature of the organization that registered the domain.

Google has some advanced search commands to make this quicker. Just add site:___ to your search! E.g. site:nasa.gov or even just site:.edu. Try it below!

Accessing the Databases

Access online library materials through the library databases!

To access the databases from off-campus, you will be prompted to enter your 14-digit library barcode or your LSC email/password.

Don't have a barcode but want one? Request a barcode number online.

Discovery Search Search (nearly) all the library collections from one place, including articles, books and e-books, videos, and more.
more...less...
You can search without signing in, but once you click to access something, you'll be prompted to use your library barcode number or your LSC username/password.
A-Z Database List Sort & filter by subject and content types to find the specific collection you need.

Assignment | Argument Proposal (Pena): Research