Databases: Why Use Them?
Research projects often require you to look close up at a body of research produced by scholars in a particular field. This research is typically collected, codified, and made findable in a tool called a subject database.
Every academic discipline has at least one subject database that's considered the disciplinary gold standard -- a reliable, (relatively) comprehensive, and accurate record of the books that scholars are publishing, and the ideas they're debating and discussing in important and influential journals.
Databases are like lenses: they change what you see and how you see it -- and they offer you easy and efficient ways to bring your questions into sharper focus.
Two to Try, if You're Feeling Adventurous
Academic Search Premier Harvard Key
- A multidisciplinary database that's often good to try after HOLLIS especially for current journal articles.
APA PsycInfo Harvard Key
- The gold standard database for psychological studies of behavior -- play included.
