Now that you've gathered background information and refined your research question, let's search for academic or scholarly sources that address your focused research question more specifically. Databases are the best tools for finding these kinds of sources.
Databases are tools you can use to search the content within them. The databases provided by the BGSU Libraries contain and organize content from scholarly journals, trade publications, magazines, newspapers, eBooks, and more.
We recommend Academic Search Complete as a good starting point because it is a general database, meaning there are a variety of subjects represented within it.
Yes! See the "search strategies" tab for more information about how to search databases effectively.
A multidisciplinary, full-text database that includes scholarly journal articles on all subjects, as well as magazines, books, book chapters, reports, conference proceedings, and more.
Coverage: 1887 to present; most full text is 1975 to present.
You may need to use a more specialized research database. For example, if you select a topic that has something to do with teacher compensation at charter schools, you could use an education database to explore the perspectives of educators and school administrators.
Use our A-Z databases link (below) for an alphabetical list of research databases. You can get to the same list from the library home page by using the link labeled "all databases".
You will see "peer reviewed" or "academic journal" labels in your EBSCO search results to indicate that the item was published in an academic journal. However, not all articles will be suitable for your assignment. You will still need to examine each article to be sure that it meets the requirements of your assignment and is relevant to your research question. If you are unsure, ask your instructor for clarification.
The handout below provides descriptions of the different types of articles published in academic journals.