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Class Guide: ECN 377 - Applied Economic Analysis
Library Catalog
Why use the Library Catalog?
The library has many varied resources that can help you with your policy research paper. From academic books covering the many aspects of your issue to actual hearings held in Congressional and Senate committee/subcommittee meeting can be found in the Library Catalog. Finding Articles TIPS for effective searching:
Citations and abstracts from journals, books, dissertations about history and culture of the U.S. and Canada. (indexing: 1964+) Criminal Justice Abstracts
Contains comprehensive coverage of international journals, books, reports, dissertations and unpublished papers on criminology and related disciplines. (indexing: 1968+)
Congressionial Universe - access to publications on key American policy issues. New to legal and governmental research? Take a look at the Legal Research page located via the Subject Research Guide page. [URL: http://library.uncwil.edu/Subject/Legal/index.html ] Evaluation of Websites The reliability and quality of information from Web sources has created many debates in the academic world. Researchers must always remember that the Web is a vast, unregulated information resource that ANYONE with the proper tools and a little money can create a site on the Web. Much like scholarly articles, accountability and content of the webpage are the key criteria used to determine if a site When viewing a site for research purposes the three most important features to consider are:
Authority: Who's responsible for the page content? Are there any clues about that person's qualifications?
Content: Does it seem accurate? If you don't know much about the topic yet, consider these other questions. Are there citations to other works? Has the page been updated recently? Are there facts you could try to verify?
Audience/Objectivity: Who designed it? And for whom? Is there obvious (or not so obvious) bias? Is the page nothing more than a marketing tool? What level of audience is it designed for (e.g. children, adults, students, professionals)?
Last Update: March 1, 2006
The library has many varied resources that can help you with your policy research paper. From academic books covering the many aspects of your issue to actual hearings held in Congressional and Senate committee/subcommittee meeting can be found in the Library Catalog. Finding Articles TIPS for effective searching:
- Once you have established your topic, write down research questions and from those questions, identify the keywords and use them in your search statement. You do not want to enter questions or full sentences into when searching electronic databases. Instead, you should break down your questions into major keywords or concepts
- After you have identified keywords, think of synonyms for those words. You should also determine if it will be helpful for you to search for the singular and plural form of the word.
- Next you should combine your keywords in a way the computer can understand. To do this you will be using what is called Boolean Logic. The most important aspect of Boolean Logic is using AND to specify exactly what you are looking for in your results
Listed below are a few of the many databases that you can search for your policy paper. These databases will provide you with citations and abstracts to articles, once you have this information simply perform a Journal Title search in the library catalog to see if Randall Library has the title.
PAIS International
The database covers the public and social policy literature of business, economics,
finance, law, international relations, public administration, government,
political science, and other social sciences -- with emphasis on issues that are
or might become the subjects of legislation. (indexing: 1974+)
Citations and abstracts from journals, books, dissertations about history and culture of the U.S. and Canada. (indexing: 1964+) Criminal Justice Abstracts
Contains comprehensive coverage of international journals, books, reports, dissertations and unpublished papers on criminology and related disciplines. (indexing: 1968+)
Sociological Abstracts
Access to the latest worldwide findings in theoretical and applied
sociology, social science, and policy science. Entries cover sociological
aspects broad topics, including business, collective behavior, community
development, disaster studies, education, environmental studies, law and
penology, medicine and health, racial interactions, social psychology, social
work, sociological theory, substance abuse, urban studies, and violence.
(indexing 1963+)
Also take a look at the Randall Library Subject Research Guides for Business & Economics for additional databases to search.
Scholarly Articles
First and foremost: Accountability and content of the specific article
are the key criteria used to determine if an article is scholarly.
- The audience of the journal will be geared toward researchers and professionals in the field. There will be little or no advertisements.
- The content of the journal will be research projects, methodology, and theory articles written by contributing authors. Articles are usually based on original research using established methodology that supports conclusions arrived at by the author.
- Accountability, meaning that articles are peer review or refereed and every article has an extensive bibliography.
Congressionial Universe - access to publications on key American policy issues. New to legal and governmental research? Take a look at the Legal Research page located via the Subject Research Guide page. [URL: http://library.uncwil.edu/Subject/Legal/index.html ] Evaluation of Websites The reliability and quality of information from Web sources has created many debates in the academic world. Researchers must always remember that the Web is a vast, unregulated information resource that ANYONE with the proper tools and a little money can create a site on the Web. Much like scholarly articles, accountability and content of the webpage are the key criteria used to determine if a site When viewing a site for research purposes the three most important features to consider are:
Authority: Who's responsible for the page content? Are there any clues about that person's qualifications?
Content: Does it seem accurate? If you don't know much about the topic yet, consider these other questions. Are there citations to other works? Has the page been updated recently? Are there facts you could try to verify?
Audience/Objectivity: Who designed it? And for whom? Is there obvious (or not so obvious) bias? Is the page nothing more than a marketing tool? What level of audience is it designed for (e.g. children, adults, students, professionals)?
Last Update: March 1, 2006