Scholarly Resources vs. Popular Resources
Source: "Study Help: Scholarly Sources Explained" by University of South Australia; https://youtu.be/IRCHdhdS_aU. Accessed 3/27/2023
License: CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0
NSU Databases
The NSU Library subscribes to numerous databases. You may see the complete list here: A to Z Databases
The list below offers databases that cover many topics and disciplines. They are good places to begin your research.
Some of the databases require you to sign on using your Open Athens information.
To sign into Open Athens use only the first part of your email address for the username.
- For example: j.q.smith@spartans.nsu.edu would enter: j.q.smith
The password is the same as your general NSU login password.
- Academic Search Complete (EBSCOhost)
Academic Search Complete is a scholarly, multi-disciplinary, full-text database, with more than 8,500 full-text periodicals, including more than 7,300 peer-reviewed journals. In addition to full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for more than 12,500 journals and a total of more than 13,200 publications including monographs, reports, and conference proceedings.
- Britannica Academic
Britannica Academic provides access to high-quality, comprehensive reference information. Includes access to the Britannica encyclopedia, atlas, world data, the Classics, biographies, news, multimedia, and more. You can also use Britannica Academic to search an Internet directory that includes more than 300,000 links to Web sites selected, rated, and reviewed by Britannica editors. This database also includes the Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate® Dictionary.
- Cambridge Core
Cambridge Core is the home of academic content from Cambridge University Press. The collection includes access to nearly one million articles and more than 300 books covering a wide variety of subjects. In addition, users can access more than 100 Cambridge Elements - original, concise, authoritative, and peer-reviewed scholarly and scientific research, organised into focused series edited by leading scholars, and providing comprehensive coverage of the key topics in disciplines spanning the arts and sciences.
- Credo ReferenceProvides authoritative reference content through a one-stop search platform. Full-text online access to hundreds of multidisciplinary reference book collections, including art, history, law, medicine, psychology, technology, bilingual dictionaries and encyclopedias. Instructions for searching this database are below.
- Dissertations & Theses Global (ProQuest)
A comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses from around the world, offering millions of works from thousands of universities. Full-text coverage spans from 1743 to the present, with citation coverage dating back to 1637.
- eBook Academic Collection (EBSCOhost)
This collection contains over 246,000 eBooks on a wide variety of academic subject matter.
- eBook Central (ProQuest)
eBook Central is a collection of nearly 250,000 academic e-books on a wide variety of subjects.
- Factiva
Factiva is a Dow Jones business intelligence platform that includes content from 33,000 news, data, and information sources from 200 countries and 32 languages. The archive has more than two billion articles. The oldest dates from 1944, and 2,300 sources have more than 20 years of archived articles.
- Gale eBooks
A multidisciplinary research database of encyclopedias and reference sources within the Gale eBooks platform.
- HeinOnline
This database offers access to 3,200 scholarly journals that examine more than a thousand topics, all dating back to the first issue published. There is a comprehensive U.S. government publications collection and an archive of case law consisting of federal, state, and overseas cases. The international resources address many countries, regions, and international organizations.
- JSTORJSTOR is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources. Instructions for searching JSTOR are below.
- Oxford Academic
Oxford Academic includes access to over 500 peer-reviewed journals and 13,000 books spanning across disciplines.
- Oxford Reference PremiumThis reference database includes access to almost 400 dictionaries and encyclopedias of fully-indexed, cross-searchable works published by Oxford University Press with detailed information across a broad subject range of topics. Instructions for searching this database are below.
- ProQuest Platform (ProQuest)
Users can search, find and preview more than 900 million documents and retrieve scholarly full-text open access sources directly curated by ProQuest.
- Sage Journals
Sage Journals provides access to nearly 1,200 journals across a wide variety of subjects.
- SpringerLink
This is the integrated platform for books, journals, and other materials published by Springer, a major publisher of scientific books and journals. Disciplines represented include the sciences, business, law, history, literature, philosophy, political science, social sciences, and statistics.
- Virtual Library of Virginia Journal Locator (VIVA)Journal, eBook, and Article locating service for use with VIVA collections.
- Wiley Online Library
Wiley Online Library provides access to multidisciplinary content across more than 1,600 journals and 22,000 ebooks.
Credo Reference
- Credo Reference
Credo Reference provides full-text online access to hundreds of multidisciplinary reference book collections, including art, history, law, medicine, psychology, technology, bilingual dictionaries, and encyclopedias through a one-stop search platform. Search results often include articles from a wide array of publications and frequently present subject coverage from multiple perspectives. Using Credo Reference to approach a topic from different viewpoints can be a great way to expand your familiarity with the topic and it can help you develop new arguments and observations for your research.
Running a basic search in Credo Reference is similar to searching in Wikipedia. You can use general keywords and phrases in your search and Credo Reference will return results that include some or all of your keywords.
Clicking the "Advanced Search" button below the search box opens up additional options to control what kinds of results your search returns.
Use the provided Advanced Search boxes to refine your search based on the prompts.
In addition, the Advanced Search box includes drop-down menus that will allow you to limit Subjects, Titles, Publication Dates, and Features by checking the appropriate box.
Credo Reference supplies a visual related topics map that can be a great way to explore your topic and see connections that can further your research. Click the links in the map to jump to articles on that topic and generate a new visual topic map.
Click the Hugo Award and a new series of search results will load:
Credo Reference is equipped with a Research Quick Tips tool for help with research, searching, and topic selection to help you make the most of the database. To access the Research Quick Tips area, click on the three-lined "hamburger" menu in the upper-left corner of the screen and choose "Research Quick Tips":
The Research Quick Tips menu has several helpful guides:
JSTOR
- JSTOR
A multidisciplinary digital library that includes all 2,800+ academic journals on JSTOR; spanning more than 60 disciplines across the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Access also includes more than two million primary source documents.
And, with the incorporation of Artstor's collections, JSTOR is now home to more than two million images.
Running a basic search in JSTOR is similar to searching in Wikipedia. You can use general keywords and phrases in your search and JSTOR will return results across its full collection that include some or all of your keywords.
On the results page, the left-side menu can be used to filter your results. Check the "Content I can Access" button to access full-text articles.
Clicking the "Advanced Search" button above the search box opens an new page with additional options to control what kinds of results your search will return.
Use the provided Advanced Search fields, dropdown menus, and material types boxes to refine your search.
JSTOR also provides a Search Help page that provides specific overview of the advanced tools available on the platform. Examples include using Boolean Operators, Truncation, Wildcards, and Proximity searching.
In addition to standard database searching, JSTOR includes several tools that can be used for exploring your topic, discovering resources, and extracting data from the JSTOR collection. Each of these resources can be found in the Tools menu in the upper-right portion of any search page.
- Text Analyzer:
- This feature allows you to upload a document that includes text (an article, your own paper, or even a picture of a page of a book) and the platform will analyze the text for topics and terms before presenting you with related materials in JSTOR's collection and an adjustable dashboard. This is a tool that can help with document discovery and topic explorations, but remember that this is an accessory to performing your own searches and you should always be wary of machine generated results and be sure to verify any sources that the system suggests.
- The results dashboard has a different appearance form the normal search results page. The search filters for this feature are at the top of the results list in a dropdown menu and includes publication year, content type, and the "Content I can access" checkbox.
- Learn more about Text Analyzer on the about page: https://www.jstor.org/analyze/about
- The JSTOR Understanding series:
- The JSTOR Understanding series presents primary resources with passages highlighted to indicate resources in JSTOR that have quoted the passage and provides links to those articles. This tool can be used to explore the scholarly interpretation of primary works, brainstorm topics, and learn about primary resources.
- Data for Research:
- The Data for Research tool uses Constellate, a JSTOR Labs project, to provide text analysis and text mining access to the JSTOR collection that can be used to create datasets such as term frequency over time and prevalence within a subject.
- This resource also provides built in visualization tools for your data set.
JSTOR offers a full LibGuides site of research guides to help researchers make the most of the platform. These assistance tools can be found in the page footer of any page by clicking the "LibGuides" or "Research Basics" links.
- Recommended guides include the following:
Oxford Reference Premium
- Oxford Reference Premium
This reference database includes access to almost 400 dictionaries and encyclopedias of fully-indexed, cross-searchable works published by Oxford University Press with detailed information across a broad subject range of topics.
Running a basic search in Oxford Reference Premium is similar to searching in Wikipedia. You can use general keywords and phrases in your search and Britannica Academic will return results that include some or all of your keywords.
On the search results page, Oxford Reference Premium offers a series of post-search filtering options on the left side of the page under the heading "Narrow Your Choices":
By default, Oxford Reference Premium shows all content in the results, which includes articles that are not available in full-text. Item availability is indicated to the right of the result with a green open lock 
, the word Free in a green oval 
, or a red closed lock 
.
To limit the results list to items that are available in full-text, check the "Unlocked" and "Free" boxes under the heading "By Availability" in the left side menu and click submit:
Oxford Reference Premium has a help page with additional tips for searching and making the most of the database. To access the help page, click "Help" at the bottom of any page in the database:
