SO 207 - Criminology: Databases and Websites

Using databases for your research has several advantages:

1. The material is appropriate for college research.
2. The author(s) of the articles on our databases have credibility in their fields.
3. Databases provide helpful features, such as being able to e-mail articles to yourself, and providing sample citations you can download and/or print.
4. Suggested narrower topics when you begin typing your search terms.
5. The ability to narrow your results further after receiving your initial search results.

Peer-review, in its simplest terms, is when an expert reviews the research report of another expert. 

Here's how it works in terms of journals that are available on library databases: 

An expert or team of experts in a subject will conduct research. They will write about their research and conclusions. This process often includes descriptions of the research methods they used. The paper may also include a brief review of other articles on the subject, or a Literature Review. When the researcher(s) has finished their paper, they will submit to a journal that publishes new research in a subject. A Peer-Reviewed Journal is one where submissions are reviewed by a team of experts. These experts will review the paper, the conclusions, the sources used, and the research methods used (if applicable). If the reviewers find that the complete work meets or exceeds the standards for research in the field, and the findings result in new insights into the subject, the article will be published in the journal. 

To access these databases from off campus, you will need to login using your library username and password (both are your last name and last four digits of your student ID (Examples: smith1234 or clinton-dix6789).

The following video will teach you how to search scholarly databases such as Academic Search Complete, Military and Government Collection, Historial Abstracts, Religion and Philosophy Collection, the Ebsco Ebook Collection, and more. 

The following videos will help you download ebooks from the Ebsco Ebooks Collection, either to a desktop computer or a mobile device. 

To access these databases from off campus, you will need to login using your library username and password (both are your last name and last four digits of your student ID (Examples: smith1234 or clinton-dix6789).