There are many databases you can use that provide access to journal articles, book chapters, dissertations, and more related to your assignment topics.
Access the databases from this guide (linked below) or from the library's homepage using the databases tab. You can also browse by subject category.
Everyone can use the Academic Search Ultimate database which is an EbscoHost database. There are several other databases within the Ebsco platform that will be relevant to your topics. BUT, you want to search them together by getting into Academic Search and adding the others.
Everyone can use the Worldwide Political Science Abstracts database which is a ProQuest database. Just like Ebsco, there are several other databases within the Proquest platform that will be relevant to your topics. BUT, you want to search them together by getting into Worldwide Political Abstracts and adding the others.
Please don't search them individually, you will retrieve too many duplicate results and you will be wasting your time.
See the tab - Searching Multiple Databases
For EbscoHost, add to Academic Search Ultimate:
America. History and Life
eBook Collection
International Political Science Abstracts
Masterfile
Military and Government Collection
Medline (Health)
Health Source - Consumer Edition
Health Source - Nursing/Academic Edition
SocINDEX
For Proquest, add to Worldwide Political Science Abstracts:
PAIS
Coronavirus Research Database
Ebook Central
Public Health Database
Sociological Abstracts
Multi-disciplinary database providing information for nearly every area of academic study. Includes an enormous collection of the most valuable peer-reviewed full text journals, as well as additional journals, magazines, newspapers and books. Multidisciplinary subjects including: social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, physics, chemistry, language & linguistics, arts & literature, medicine, ethnic studies. 1965- present.
Searching is trial and error. Try and think of different ways to say the same thing. Start with keywords to describe your topic, within results, read the abstract and look at the subject headings to identify additional keywords to use and revise the search (if needed).
Search Strategies:
Start with keywords (place phrases in quotes), use connectors (or / and) and look for additional keywords in the abstract or subject headings.
—
Place quotes around a phrase.
Using quotations marks means that the database will search for the entire phrase, not the individual words.
"transnational activism"
"transnational advocacy networks"
"climate change"
"international order"
"united states"
"new start"
"arms control"
"nuclear deal"
_______
Use the * for truncation
When you put an asterisk at the end of a search term it searches for words with any possible ending.
partnership* = partnership or partnerships
program* = program or programs
cause* = cause or causes
relations* = relations or relationship or relationships
covid* = covid or covid-19
—
Use -or- between search terms, the database will search for any of them. This is useful because there are usually be multiple ways to refer to your topic/concept or when any of the words will do
policy or policies
influence or impact or consequence*
"transnational activism" or "transnational advocacy networks"
"united states" or usa or u.s.
aid or assistance
transnational or global or international or worldwide
intervention or involvement or engagement
cooperation or collaboration or teamwork or partnership
covid or pandemic
future or forecast
—
Use -and- between search concepts, the database will only show you search results that contain those search terms
"climate change" and (activism or “transnational advocacy networks”) and global
"new start" and russia and "united states" and "arms control"
ethiopia and ("united states" or u.s. or usa) and (intervention or involvement or engagement)
(covid or pandemic) and (cooperation or collaboration or teamwork or partnership)
Remember, searching is trial and error, keep track of your search strategies.
Listed below are some possible search strategies, but they are not the only ones! Think about the topic and what keywords can be used to describe the concepts. Then combine them using the connectors.
1. Climate change and transnational activism
"climate change" or "global warming"
and
activism or “transnational advocacy network*”
2. New Start and Russia and US
"new start"
and
russia and "united states"
and
"arms control"
3. Country in crisis and US involvement
yemen
and
"united states" or u.s. or usa (be sure to change search field to Abstract - AB in the ebsco databases)
and
intervention or involvement or engagement
4. Covid cooperation
covid* or pandemic
and
cooperation or collaboration or teamwork or partnership
and
future or forecast
and
global or international or worldwide
Ebsco tips:
In the Ebsco databases when you start to type (and when you use -or) you will see suggestions from Ebsco
Limit to Scholarly(Peer Reviewed) Journals once in results.
Too many results even when limiting to Scholarly(Peer Reviewed) Journals?
Try limiting by date and language.
Try limiting the search field from Select a Field to AB Abstract (you will need to do this definitely for limiting to the United States)
Limiting or including the United States can be tricky. What seems to work best is changing the default search field from Select a Field to AB Abstract
Proquest Tips
The same principle applies to the search field. Limiting or including the United States can be tricky. What seems to work best is changing the default search field from Anywhere to Abstract - AB
In addition, limit to Peer reviewed from the start
When searching, change the search field from Anywhere to either Abstract - AB or Anywhere except full text - NOFT
Sometimes you will not see a link to the fulltext but will see:
Make sure you click on the link, it is possible we will have the article in fulltext or it might be in print or we might not own the item (then you could request it via Interlibrary Loan (if you have the time, it will take a few days to get a scanned copy)
IF YOU DO NOT FIND WHAT YOU NEED PLEASE EMAIL ME.
Results from the Find@UMD