Find Science in the News
Step 1: Search Specific Publications
Individual Media Outlets
nytimes.com bostonglobe.com wsj.com washingtonpost.com ...etc.
Step 2: Try an Aggregator or Database
Free News Aggregators
Google News Yahoo News Twitter News ...etc.
...or...build your own customized news aggregator with an RSS feed builder--Feedly is a popular, easy-to-use builder. For additional suggestions, Google "best rss feed news aggregators"
Library Databases
The library licenses several news aggregators: once you get the hang of them, these can be excellent places to start your search. The content is reliable, it's curated, and the interface allows you to manipulate your results in complex ways. This makes it easy to find a balanced selection of stories from a variety of viewpoints.
Here are our top recommendations:
- Academic Search Premier (Harvard Login)Academic Search Premier (ASP) is a multi-disciplinary database that includes citations and abstracts from over 4,700 scholarly publications (journals, magazines and newspapers). Full text is available for more than 3,600 of the publications and is searchable.
PRO TIP: Use the left-hand menu to filter your results by publication type (newspapers, magazines, etc.) - LexisNexis AcademicLexisNexis Academic provides access to thousands of news, business, legal, and medical publications and information sources, including: newspapers, newsletters, magazines, trade journals, wire services, and broadcast transcripts.
The legal component of the database includes federal and state case law, statues, secondary sources such as law reviews, and state legal materials.
PRO TIP: Because LexisNexis includes legal documents and financial reports, it helps to narrow before you search: use the "Search by Subject or Topic" drop-down menu to specify news, then click on "Advanced Search" to get a sense of your options. - FactivaFactiva is a database of over 8,000 business and news publications, most in full text.
PRO TIP: Explore the "source" menu for options to limit your search to the biggest and most important news sources.
Note: our Factiva license permits up to 6 simultaneous users---if you're user #7, you'll get a message saying the service is unavailable or a non-Harvard login page. Just wait and try again in a few minutes
A Note about Databases...
Please note:
There's a big difference between navigating a website like nytimes.com and navigating a New York Times article whose text is included in a database (aka e-resource) like LexisNexis Academic.
Databases are designed for structured searching, which means they are powerful and can give you very precise results, but there's also a learning curve. Be patient! The time you put in to learning how to use a database will pay off in the long run. Plus, learning to use one database makes it much easier to learn other databases.
Some general tips:
- always look for advanced search options
- let the database teach you: familiarize yourself with the menu options, read around the "help" section, and always pay attention to the terms attached to individual articles
- be strategic about when to do a general keyword search and when to do a more precise subject or index term search
- remember that not all index terms are applied consistently: the best approach is to try a few different versions of your search
Want more database search tips? MIT Libraries has an awesome guide: http://libguides.mit.edu/database-search