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IDST 114: Science Fiction, the Environment, and Vulnerable Communities: Discover research materials

Great starting points for research

A few key databases focused on Sociology, Political Science, Environmental Studies and Women's and Gender Studies may be helpful starting points -- but there are also many more resources that can be found on the E-Research by Discipline tab or by exploring other Research Guides on the library website. For individual journals, browse our Online Journals Page.

Finding foundational readings

CQ Researcher
The CQ Researcher is the perfect answer for people beginning research on current topics. It covers the most current and controversial issues of the day. From Abortion to War, each issue gives you a comprehensive review of the controversies, historical background, chronology of important events, opposing views from experts on the subject, and extensive bibliographies for additional research.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users. North Carolina residents with a borrower's card may access from off campus by visiting NCLive directly. Contact the Davis Library Service Desk for the NCLive password (instructions).
Coverage: 1991-present
Issues and Controversies on File
Contains full text articles on current topics of interest, arranged in opposing points of view. It is intended to give users a quick grasp of the essentials of more than 250 controversial news topics. It also contains chronologies, illustrations, maps, tables, sidebars, bibliographies and contact information.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: 1995-
Points of View Reference Source
Provides students with a series of essays that present multiple sides of a current issue. Essays provide questions and materials for further thought and study and are accompanied by thousands of supporting articles.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Oxford Bibliographies Online
Provides sophisticated online recommendations to the core scholarship on a subject as determined by experts in the field. Each module constitutes a convenient and comprehensive introduction to the essential body of literature that has shaped research on a topic. At the click of a mouse, you therefore have 24/7 access to expert recommendations that have been rigorously peer-reviewed and vetted to ensure scholarly accuracy and objectivity.

Each OBO subject database allows you to identify the core authors, works, ideas, and debates that have shaped the scholarly conversation so you can find the key literature. All the bibliographic essays have been peer-reviewed, and the specific entries are linked to full-text content available through the web or the UNC Library. The "My OBO" feature also allows you to create a personalized list of citations.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill student, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users

General and multidisciplinary search options

Academic Search Premier
Find information on academic areas of business, social sciences, humanities, general academic, general science, education and multi-cultural topics; resource provides access to major popular and scholarly journals with many full-text articles.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: Indexing, 1975-present; Full-text, 1975-present
Articles Plus
Index to hundreds of millions electronic resources, including journal and newspaper articles, e-books, dissertations, and media in campus library collections.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Google Scholar
Enables you to search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research. Use Google Scholar to find articles from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as scholarly articles available across the web.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.

Google Scholar provides the "cited by" feature which traces an article's topic from the time of publication forward.The cited by link will show other articles that have cited this resource. When combined with an article's bibliography, you are then able to locate a project within a scholarly conversation. Be sure to configure your Google Scholar account so that you gain full access to articles provided by the University Libraries.

JSTOR
Provides an image archive of important scholarly journal literature in nearly all the humanities and social sciences disciplines, international and foreign areas studies, and many of the sciences. UNC patrons have access to extensive retrospective holdings of hundreds of journals, starting with the first issues. Excludes the most recent 2-5 years of currently available journals.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: Varies. Excludes most recent 2-5 years of currently available journals.

Subject specific databases

America, History and Life
An index for North American history consisting of journal articles, books, book chapters, dissertations & book reviews. America, History and Life is a complete bibliographic reference to the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. (Source: vendor website.)

Note: Limited to 6 users at a time.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
African American Communities
This collection focuses on race relations across social, political, cultural, and religious arenas; coverage is predominantly in Atlanta, Chicago, Brooklyn, and towns and cities in North Carolina. It includes pamphlets, periodicals, correspondence, official records and oral histories regarding integration, civil rights, and other subjects.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Environment Complete
Journals on topics including agriculture, renewable energy sources, natural resources, marine & freshwater science, geography, pollution & waste management, environmental technology, urban planning, and more.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Historical Abstracts
Covers the history of the world from 1450 to the present (excluding the United States and Canada) and indexes nearly 2,300 journals in over 40 languages.

Note: Limited to 6 users at a time.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: 1953-present
Women's Studies International
Interdisciplinary, international database covering the core literature of the field of women's and gender studies with links to full text.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: 1964 -
Sociological Abstracts
Database covering over 2500 journals in sociology, both theoretical and applied, and related disciplines including anthropology, economics, education, medicine, community development, philosophy, demography, political science, and social psychology. Articles in 30 different languages from about 55 countries.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: 1963-present
Global Health
A public health database that provides information on international health, biomedical life sciences, non-communicable diseases, public health nutrition, food safety and hygiene. More than 2.6 million records from 1973 to the present day sourced from over 7,000 serials, books, book chapters, conference proceedings, patents, theses, electronic publications and other hard-to-find resources. Publications from over 100 countries in 52 languages. Over 185,000 records added each year.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.

The New York Times and The Washington Post

All UNC Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff now have full, year-round access to The New York Times, including smartphone, tablet, and browser access, thanks to a sponsorship from the University Library. For app downloads, visit NYTimes.com/mobile.

The University Libraries also offers an electronic subscription to The Washington Post for UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty and staff.

Useful library guides

Climate change
This guide presents selected resources related to climate change and global warming. To find additional material, search the library catalog using common keywords like global warming, climate change, or greenhouse effect. You can also browse the UNC Libraries' collection by looking in the QC 981 call number range.

List of Online Journals

Online Journals