LibGuides: CRIM 3010: Finding Articles

What Researchers Do:

TOPIC – Define the research question/statement

SOURCES – Identify the information need. Do you need background info? A research article? A literature review article? etc. What databases would include this type of information on your topic?

KEYWORDS – Select the words you will be using to find information effectively and efficiently (Use a variety of words to describe your topic/concepts. Find subject headings that relate to your topic/concept).

EVALUATION – Evaluate information critically. Is the info relevant, reliable, current, appropriate?

USE--Organize, synthesize and communicate information to make your point/argument.

CITE--Ethically and legally access and use info by avoiding plagiarism and citing all your sources.

Databases

There are several databases that you can use to find articles. Remember that subject databases will only include journals that are within that particular subject area. In addition to the two main criminal justice databases, at the top of the list below, you will also find other databases useful. For instance, if you want the sociological perspective on crime, you could also use Sociological Abstracts, and for a psychological perspective, you could also use PsycInfo.

Some databases are more general. Academic Search Complete covers most academic subjects, while Science Direct is a good source for scientific articles.

Interested in the academic conversation of a topic, the history, or current science, then Scopus is for you! In Scopus you can easily find linked citations from an article. Web of Science also shows articles that have cited the primary article since it was published.

Criminal Justice Abstracts w/Full-text This link opens in a new window
Provides indexing and abstracting for criminal justice, forensic science, law enforcement, corrections, and more - over 175 journals and about 45 are available full-text online to the researcher.
The subjects covered represent the entire range of criminal justice topics including: criminal law and behavioral sciences, criminal procedure, corrections, search and seizure, evidence, family law, forensic sciences, policing practices and procedures, quantitative issues and research methods, social science issues and law enforcement, trends and innovations in law enforcement, victims' rights, etc. Coverage: Varies; most titles from 1986 - the present. A variety of help options are available:
Criminal Justice Database This link opens in a new window
Provides indexing and abstracting for criminal justice, forensic science, law enforcement, corrections, and more - over 175 journals and about 45 are available full-text online to the researcher.
The subjects covered represent the entire range of criminal justice topics including: criminal law and behavioral sciences, criminal procedure, corrections, search and seizure, evidence, family law, forensic sciences, policing practices and procedures, quantitative issues and research methods, social science issues and law enforcement, trends and innovations in law enforcement, victims' rights, etc. Coverage: Varies; most titles from 1986 - the present. A variety of help options are available:
ERIC This link opens in a new window
Indexes with abstracts of journal articles, unpublished reports, and other documents in education and related topics.
ERIC is also available via Proquest, OCLC FirstSearch, and at ERIC website with access to full text documents from 1993-present. ERIC consists of two files:
- CIJE - Current Index to Journals in Education which indexes over 750 professional journals - all are assigned ERIC numbers beginning with an EJ (Eric journal).
- RIE - Resources in Education which indexes a variety of documents; all are assigned ERIC numbers beginning with an ED (Eric document). OCLC provides access to online full-text ED records via subscription links to EDRS Not all ED documents are available online. Inclusion depends on the authors original copyright agreement with EDRS. Typically 80% of ED documents permit online full-text usage. HINT: on OCLC look for the EDRS link at the bottom of the detailed record.
A variety of help options are available:
Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window
Covers news, culture and history of ethnic and minority issues (English/Espanol) in over 200 publications, minority and native press publications, including newspapers, magazines and journals.
Articles written by and about various ethnic groups in the United States including Latinos/Hispanic, African/Caribbean, Jewish, Middle Eastern, Native American, Eastern European, and Asian American.
GenderWatch This link opens in a new window
Provides access to online full-text collection of 125 international publications plus reports, pamphlets, papers and conference proceedings devoted to women and gender issues.
The database provides in-depth coverage of the subjects that are uniquely central to women's daily lives, including family, childbirth, birth control, daycare, domestic abuse, work and the workplace, sexual harassment, aging, aging parents, body image, eating disorders and social and societal roles. It also includes content on the impact of gender and gender roles.
HeinOnline’s Government Politics and Law This link opens in a new window
HeinOnline is a fully searchable, image-based government document and legal research database. It contains comprehensive coverage from inception of both U.S. statutory materials, U.S. Congressional Documents and more than 2,400 scholarly journals, all of the world's constitutions, all U.S. treaties, collections of classic treatises and presidential documents, and access to the full text of state and federal case law powered by Fastcase. HeinOnline’s Government, Politics and Law also includes special topical collections on topics like Religion and the Law, Women and the Law, History of International Law, and Criminal Justice.
OneFile: Criminal Justice This link opens in a new window
Provides access to 250 journals. Subjects covered: law, law enforcement, or terrorism, paralegal service, preparing for a career in homeland security, forensic science, investigating crime scenes, and more.
Exclusive features, including Topic Finder, InterLink, and a mobile-optimized interface, support and enhance the search experience.
PsycINFO This link opens in a new window
Includes access to over 1,800 professional journals, chapters, books, reports, theses and dissertations, published internationally. Additionally, there are more than 8 million cited references in 185,000 journal articles, books, and book chapters.
Subject Coverage
- Applied psychology
- Communication systems
- Developmental psychology
- Educational psychology
- Experimental human and animal psychology
- Personality
- Psychological and physical disorders
- Physiological psychology and neuroscience
- Professional personnel and issues
- Psychometrics and statistics
- Social psychology
- Social processes and issues
- Sports psychology and leisure
- Treatment and prevention
PubMed This link opens in a new window
PubMed comprises over 23 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content in library subscription databases, from PubMed Central, and publisher web sites.
GUIDES:
The PubMed User Guide provides the information in search, cite, save, share, and other areas. Please visit the Guide for guidance. To learn more about how to navigate PubMed, visit PubMed Tutorial.
ScienceDirect This link opens in a new window
ScienceDirect hosts over 3,800 journals and more than 37,000 books—over 14 million peer-reviewed publications..
Features:
- Index with abstracts to over 1,700 scientific journals published by Elsevier. At CSULA our use of this database permits access to over 900 Elsevier journals in full-text online format
- The 900 full-text journals represent all Elsevier journals currently under (print) subscription at all CSU and University of California libraries. These libraries represent the consortium which negotiated this ScienceDirect database subscription. We are not permitted full-text access to the remaining 200 Elsevier journal titles in this collection, but users can retrieve citations and abstracts from these journals using the collection's search interface
- Coverage: Varies from January 1995 - the present; most titles are from 1998 - the present
Social Sciences Full Text This link opens in a new window
Provides access to full-text articles in over 600 periodicals in sociology, psychology, anthropology, geography, economics, political science, and law.
Full text coverage begins in 1994, abstracting begins in 1984 and indexing begins in 1983
Social Work Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Produced by the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), this database provides indexing and abstracts for journals dealing with all aspects of the social work field, including theory and practice, areas of service and social issues and problems.
Social Work Abstracts offers extensive coverage of more than 500 social work and human services journals dating back to 1965. Researchers, students and practitioners seeking scholarly and professional perspectives on subjects such as therapy, education, human services, addictions, child and family welfare, mental health, civil and legal rights and more will find Social Work Abstracts to be an indispensable resource.
Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Index with abstracts to more than 250 English-language journals, as well as dissertations and unpublished papers, in sociology, social work, and other related social sciences. Access includes 1963 to date. Updated six times per year.
Guide

CSA Search Help
WestlawNext Campus Research This link opens in a new window
WestlawNext Campus Research provides legal materials including cases, statutes, and regulations of the U.S. government and state governments.
It includes the legal encyclopedia American Jurisprudence 2nd and American Law Reports, as well as Black's Law Dictionary and Campus Research Legal Guides.

Primary legal information--Cases from courts in all 50 states and the District of Columbia and from the federal courts since 1789; reported and unpublished decisions; statutes and regulations from all 50 states and federal statues published in the United States Code Annotated (USCA); Federal regulations published in the Federal Register and the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)
Secondary sources--American Jurisprudence 2d, a comprehensive encyclopedia of state and federal law; American Law Reports (ALR) articles that summarize and analyze court decisions on a particular legal issue; hundreds of journals and law reviews from leading law schools
The database also covers news and business informaiton

GUIDES:
Scopus This link opens in a new window
Scopus is an abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature covering scientific journals, books, conference proceedings, datasets, and funding data dating back to 1970. Delivering a comprehensive overview of the world’s research output in the fields of science, technology, medicine social sciences and arts, and humanities. Scopus features tools to track, analyze and visualize research.
The Scopus Information site contains a wealth of resources including:
• User guides and tips
• Title lists
• Quick tips and Frequently Asked Questions

For more information, visit:
• Scopus LibGuide
• Scopus Blog
• Scopus Search - Tips & Tricks
• Scopus Webinars
• Scopus APIs

Peer Reviewed?

Ulrich's Web This link opens in a new window
Ulrich's is an authoritative source of bibliographic and publisher information on more than 30,000 periodicals of all types academic and scholarly journals, Open Access publications, peer-reviewed titles, popular magazines, newspapers, newsletters and more from around the world. It covers all subjects, and includes publications that are published regularly or irregularly and that are circulated free of charge or by paid subscription.
Cabells Journalytics This link opens in a new window
Double check journal titles in this database to see if they are true peer-reviewed journals or journals from predatory publishers.
The Directories also includes extensive information on the style, format of most journals along with analytics-impact factor, Altmetrics (social media mentions), and citation rankings

Research Methods

Sage Research Methods Suite This link opens in a new window
Sage Research Methods Suite includes Sage Research Methods, Sage Research Methods Cases, and Sage Research Methods Datasets. Sage Research Methods is a reseaerch methods tool and links over 200,000 pages of Sage's book, journal and reference content with advanced search and discovery tools.
SAGE Research Methods Cases is a collection of hundreds of case studies of real social research. SAGE Research Methods Datasets is a collection of teaching datasets that can be used to support the teaching of quantitative and qualitative analytical methods used in the social sciences.
Sage Research Methods is a reseaerch methods tool created to help researchers, faculty and students with their research projects. Sage Research Methods links over 200,000 pages of Sage's book, journal and reference content with advanced search and discovery tools. Researchers can explore methods concepts to help them design research projects, understand particular methods or identify a new method, counduct their research, adn write up their findings. Since Sage Research Methods focuses on methodology rather than disciplines, it can be used across the social sciences, health sciences, and more.

SAGE Research Methods Cases is a collection of hundreds of case studies of real social research, specially commissioned and designed to support teaching and learning in research
methods. Each case is written to help students understand the often abstract-feeling methodological concepts by seeing how methods have been used in actual projects.

SAGE Research Methods Datasets is a collection of teaching datasets that can be used to support the teaching of quantitative and qualitative analytical methods used in the social sciences. These are datasets taken from larger national and international data sources, cleaned and reduced in size and complexity for teaching and self-study purposes, perfect for researchers, learning a new method, or brushing up on a familiar one.

Guide

Sage Research Methods Libguide

History Databases

America: History & Life This link opens in a new window
Covers history of the United States and Canada from 1493. It indexes over 1,800 journals and Ph.D. dissertations including book reviews. Its Clio Notes provide guides on key topics in United States history and allow you to browse through chronologies and brief summaries of significant events and themes from the Colonization of America to the 21st Century.
Coverage: 1895-present
Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Covers scholarly literature of world history (1450 to present) EXCEPT that of the United States and Canada. These are covered by America: History and Life . This resource abstracts more than 2,100 journals.
Coverage: 1955-present
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Offers interdisciplinary content including approximately 2,600 academic journals across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, as well as select monographs and other materials.
On occasions, you may encounter problems opening PDFs. The reason for this to happen is most likely due to the time out error. This could be due to a slow internet connection or a large download size. Many times, articles with images contained in them will time out the download.
To resolve this, right click on the link "Proceed to PDF" and select "Save Target As..." (or "Save Link as..." for Firefox). This will allow you to save the PDF to your computer and should allow for a faster, more successful download.
If the problem persists, check the PDF Help Page at JSTOR

Newspapers

Alternative Press Index Archive This link opens in a new window
Produced quarterly by the Alternative Press Center, indexes nearly 290 alternative, radical and left periodicals, newspapers and magazines that report and analyze the practices and theories of cultural, economic, political and social change.
Coverage: 1969-1990
Gale in Context: College This link opens in a new window
Provides access to news content including full-text newspapers and periodicals like The Economist, The New York Times, National Geographic, Newsweek, Popular Science, Smithsonian, and more.
Additional content: hundreds of thousands of images, videos, and audio selections that include archival film clips, broadcast video, BBC News, New York Times video, and NPR.
Global Newsstream This link opens in a new window
Formerly Newsstand, Global Newsstream enables users to search the most recent global news content with archives that stretch back into the 1980s from over 2,500 news sources including newspapers, newswires, news journals, television and radio transcripts, blogs, podcasts, and digital-only websites in full-text form.
Global Newsstream provides collections of news from the U.S., Canada, Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Australia. Global Newsstream incorporates the U.S. Newsstream, Canadian Newsstream, and International Newsstream databases. All titles are cross searchable on the ProQuest platform.

DIRECT LINKS TO MAJOR NEWSPAPERS:
Historical Los Angeles Times (1881-1994) This link opens in a new window
Historical Los Angeles Times offers completely searchable full text and full image coverage from 1881-1994. It gives quick and accurate Web access to articles, editorials, classified ads, comics, cartoons, photos, maps, and graphics. The collection provides access to every page from every available issue. For electronic access to current Los Angeles Times from 1985 to present, use Los Angeles Times (1985-present).
Historical New York Times (1851-2019) This link opens in a new window
The New York Times (1851-2019) offers full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue. The collection includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue.
Every issue of each title includes the complete paper, cover-to-cover, with full-page and article images in easily downloadable PDF format.
InfoTrac Newsstand (Gale OneFile: News) This link opens in a new window
Provides access to more than 2,300 major U.S. regional, national, and local newspapers, as well as leading titles from around the world. It also includes thousands of images, radio and TV broadcasts and transcripts.
LEGALTRAC This link opens in a new window
Provides indexing for more than 1,200 major law reviews, legal newspapers, specialty publications, Bar Association journals, and international legal journals, including more than 200 titles in full text.
The American Association of Law Libraries not only endorses LegalTrac, its special advisory committee selects, reviews, and enhances the content of this resource. The database offers coverage of federal and state cases laws and regulations, legal practice and taxation, as well as British Commonwealth, European Union, and international law.
Los Angeles Times (1996- current) This link opens in a new window
Southern California's largest daily newspaper. For electronic access to the historical segment of Los Angeles Time from 1881 to 1994, use Los Angeles Times (1881-1994) or Historical Los Angeles Times.
DESCRIPTION:
The Los Angeles Times is the Southern California's largest daily newspaper. CSULA has electronic access to the newspaper from 1/1/1985 to present.
The historical segment of the Los Angeles Times from 1881-1992 is available for electronic access at Historical Los Angeles Times.
The Los Angeles Times is also available at its own website: http://www.latimes.com/. One can access articles from the last week of the paper, as well as some specially selected older stories at no cost.

GUIDES:

University Library

CRIM 3010

Jayati Chaudhuri