Welcome to the webpage for the first in the series of writing workshops by the Center for Professional Communication at GRIPS. In this workshop, Using Research Databases, students will become familiar with the use of various databases, both those available in the GRIPS library and online. Included in the overview will be an explanation of search terms and Boolean searches as well as advice on using Microsoft Word.

 GRIPS 

As you certainly know, GRIPS has a fine library with considerable access to academic publications. The library link for databases will help you get rolling. The following databases are available.

 Your Friend, Microsoft Word 

This section includes random - yet somehow related - tips on the use of Word.

 Boolean This 

Courtesy of the fine folks at Colorado State U, here is a very cute online tutorial.

Reference sheet on Boolean searches

Here we have some examples from LinkedIn.

A nifty handout on Boolean search, courtesy of the University of New Orleans.

 Additional Databases 

This section includes some additional databases that you might find helpful.

My personal favorite, Google Scholar.

Microsoft Academic Research. Note: easy to use; appears to require quotation marks; includes publication links.

National Bureau of Economic Research — A nonprofit research organization that publishes top scholarship in the economics discipline. Many important articles first appear in working paper form here, and much of the scholarship has a broad, public policy focus.

Another very useful site, Science Direct.

Open CRS—The Congressional Research Service (CRS) operates as a quasi-think tank that provides reliable, unbiased background on policy issues. CRS does a good job of reviewing available research on issues. Open CRS aggregates these government reports as they come into the public domain. Note: Best approached using an archive service such as Archive-It.org.

CiteSeerx— computer science and information sciences. Note: Painfully simple website, but download links provided; also includes bibliography for further searching, <.

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is another free search engine for scientific and scholarly resources. Note: limited results, but everything is available (of course)

Social Science Research Network: This open-access database has hundreds of thousands of important, current papers, many of which are available for free download as PDFs. Many of the articles are working papers, meaning they are in process toward a final, published form. Note: Very helpful webpage (e.g., includes # of pages in pdf).

From Stanford University, HighWire is full access, mostly science-related, but also social science. Note: mostly hard science, medicine

PubMed Central is from the U.S. National Institutes of Health, full-text studies that relate to public health and policy issues. Note: Lots of articles available.

More options, offered without comment.

Public Library of Science (PLoS): The flagship journal of this open-access academic project, PLoS One, features original peer-reviewed research on science and medical topics; many studies have policy implications.

Bioline International: public health, food and utritional security, food and medicine and biodiversity. It provides free access to peer-reviewed journals from third world countries.

The Pew Research Center is a leading survey and research organization that not only does polling on salient issues in the news but provides deep, analytical reports around the issues.

The RAND Corporation is a non-partisan think tank that produces a wealth of information on social science topics. Some of the studies are by leading scholars who partner with RAND.

The Brookings Institution is a non-profit think tank.