Best Databases to Get Your Research Started
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CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window
Covers 1923 to the present. This weekly publication gives background information on current and controversial issues. Unbiased coverage of health, social trends, criminal justice, international affairs, education, the environment, technology and the economy.
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Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new windowProvides an excellent first-step in researching any current social issue. Includes pro-con articles, opinion pieces, newspaper pieces, scholarly articles and information from many other types of sources, all full text.
Best Databases for Finding Forensic Science Articles
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Biological Abstracts This link opens in a new windowIndexes original research articles in biological and biomedical journals. Includes traditional areas of biology such as botany, zoology, and microbiology, as well as related fields such as biomedicine, agriculture, pharmacology and ecology, interdisciplinary fields.
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CINAHL Complete This link opens in a new window
1300+ full-text journals available to support nursing and allied health professionals, students, educators and researchers. This resource also provides access to health care books, nursing dissertations, selected conference proceedings, evidence-based care sheet and quick lesson disease overviews, and continuing education modules.
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Criminal Justice Abstracts This link opens in a new windowIndexes and summarizes international journal articles, books, and reports (governmental and non-govenmental) on a wide range of topics on criminal justice. Covers crime trends, crime prevention & deterrence, juvenile delinquency, juvenile justice, police, courts, punishment and sentencing.
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Medline Plus This link opens in a new windowMedlinePlus is a goldmine of good health information from the world's largest medical library, the National Library of Medicine. Health professionals and consumers alike can depend on it for information that is authoritative and up to date. MedlinePlus has extensive information from the National Institutes of Health and other trusted sources on over 650 diseases and conditions.
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PsycINFO This link opens in a new window
PsycINFO, from the American Psychological Association (APA) contains citations and summaries of scholarly journal articles, book chapters, books, and dissertations in psychology and related disciplines, dating from the 1800s. PsycINFO is indexed with controlled vocabulary from APA's Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms.
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PubMed This link opens in a new windowCitations and abstracts from biomedical journals published in the U.S. and 70 other countries, dating back to the mid-1960's. Most records are from English-language sources or have English abstracts.
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PubMed Central This link opens in a new windowPubMed Central (PMC) is the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) free digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature.
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ScienceDirect This link opens in a new windowFull-text articles, primarily science, technology and medicine (STM). Covers a few journals in the arts, humanities and social sciences; also includes some reference e-books.
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SocINDEX with FullText This link opens in a new windowThis database provides full text journal article coverage for core journals in sociology and related disciplines including criminology, demography, gender and ethnic studies, social psychology, socio-cultural anthropology, social work and education. Full text coverage for books and conference papers.
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Web of Science (and ESI & JCR) This link opens in a new window
Web of Science is a citation database that covers three major tools: Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index. The complete database covers thousands of scholarly journals from 1975 to the present across a broad range of disciplines. Included in the subscription: Journal Citation Reports and Essential Science Indicators (ESI). Also included is the Grants Index which is found under the Web of Science core collection drop down menu.
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Westlaw This link opens in a new window
Legal research including cases, statutes, case law, court rules and regulations, and briefs for all U.S. jurisdictions. Also contains newspapers, magazines, journals, newsletters, government press releases, and transcripts of television and radio shows and congressional testimony. Coverage varies by source.
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Wiley Online Library This link opens in a new window
Multidisciplinary collection of e-journals and ebooks covering life, health and physical sciences, social science, and the humanities.
Relevant Journals
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Forensic Science CommunicationsForensic Science Communications (FSC, ISSN 1528-8005) is a peer-reviewed forensic science journal published quarterly in January, April, July, and October by FBI Laboratory personnel. It is a means of communication between forensic scientists. A publication of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); the current issue, as well as back issues are available freely and digitally via the link provided.
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Forensic Science InternationalThis journal is available in the SJSU database SCIENCE DIRECT.
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Journal of Forensic SciencesThe official journal of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. This journal is available in the SJSU database WILEY ONLINE LIBRARY. Please note that when off-campus, in addition to signing in with your Tower ID and password, you will also need to create a free account with WILEY ONLINE LIBRARY to access the articles in that database.