A quick checklist:
1. Where did you find the source? Did you use a scholarly database? UC Library Search?
2. Who's responsible for the work? Is it published by a university press or another known scholarly publisher? What are the author's credentials? Is the author a professor or other known academic or scholar?
3. Does it look like a scholarly work? Does it have footnotes and/or endnotes and/or a bibliography? What kinds of sources is it citing? Where did the author get their information? What research methodology are they using?
Additionally, depending on your specific area of research, you may want to run searches in these tools for related disciplines or multidisciplinary areas.
Multidisciplinary database with 17,800+ journals and magazines, of which 16,000+ are peer-reviewed and 8,750+ are full-text. Also included are books, conference papers and proceedings, government documents, newspapers, video content, and more. Coverage begins in 1887, with material in English, Spanish, German, French, Italian and Portuguese.
Full text database of newspapers, magazines, and journals of the alternative and independent press. Provides a valuable new source of coverage, viewpoints, and perspectives to complement and challenge the coverage of the mainstream media.
Citations to articles in roughly 381 alternative, radical, and left publications in North America. which report and analyze the practices and theories of cultural, economic, political, and social change
Citations to articles alternative, radical, and left publications in North America which report and analyze the practices and theories of cultural, economic, political, and social change
1895-present. International database for research on all periods of U.S. and Canadian history, including very recent years. Includes abstracts of journal articles and listings of books and dissertations. Over 1,800 journals are indexed.
Full text of working papers, conference proceedings, policy briefs, economic indicators, and other resources in international affairs.
Abstracts journal articles, books, dissertations, and working papers in economics. New records added monthly. Produced by American Economic Association.
Offers deep coverage in applicable areas of agriculture, ecosystem ecology, energy, renewable energy sources, natural resources, marine & freshwater science, geography, pollution & waste management, environmental technology, environmental law, public policy, social impacts, urban planning, and more. It contains more than 2.5 million records from more than 2,350 domestic and international titles dating back to 1888. Formerly Environment Index.
1863-present. International database for research on history of all regions (except the U.S. and Canada) from 1450 to the current decade. Content includes
indexing of historical articles from more than 2,300 journals in over 40 languages.
Indexes a wide range of important journals in all areas of the humanities and social sciences as far back as 1907 up to 1984. Use the UC-eLinks button to find full text, print, and/or request the item from another library.
Index and search engine providing full-text access to documents from local governments, civic organizations, and planning agencies from 500 cities in the United States and Canada.
Search by subject or browse 2,600+ full-text titles, predominantly scholarly journals and books in social sciences, history, humanities, and science and mathematics, to their earliest issues. Many titles extend as far back as late 19th or early 20th centuries; most recent 3-5 years often not included. JSTOR provides access to more than 12 million academic journal articles, books, and primary sources in 75 disciplines.
Access to the diversity of literature on the left, with a primary emphasis on politically and culturally engaged scholarship inside and outside the academy and a secondary emphasis on significant but little known sources of news and ideas.
Contains thousands of full-text sources including newspapers, news wires, television news transcripts, newsletters, magazines, and trade journals. Business sources include company information, industry news, and biographical information. Legal sources include law reviews, legal reference works, and federal and state caselaw (court decisions), statutes, and regulations. Also includes select international court opinions and municipal ordinances. Coverage dates vary. International and U.S. sources.
1972-present. Lists print and electronic articles, books, and government publications on issues of public policy, including politics, government, economy, marine policy, law.
The premiere bibliographic database covering worldwide research in all subject areas of philosophy. It contains works on philosophy from both philosophy and interdisciplinary sources. There are author-written abstracts for most records. The global database contains more than 680,000 records with source publications from 139 countries in 37 languages. The primary languages are English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Primary coverage spans from 1940 to present with additional records dating back to 1893.
1963-present. Abstracts journal articles, monographs, dissertations, conference proceedings, other research covering sociology, social work, and related social sciences. Also includes selected web resources.
Index for all aspects of Urban Studies from 1973 to the present. Includes abstracts and many full-text links. Formerly Sage Urban Studies Abstracts.
Database of digitized books, images, documents, essays and bibiographies documenting women's reform activities in the U.S., mostly from the 19th and 20th centuries.
1975-present. Research within the political science discipline and its complementary fields, including international relations, law, and public administration/policy. Use the Get it at UC button to find full text, print, and/or request the item from another library.
Multidisciplinary database with 17,800+ journals and magazines, of which 16,000+ are peer-reviewed and 8,750+ are full-text. Also included are books, conference papers and proceedings, government documents, newspapers, video content, and more. Coverage begins in 1887, with material in English, Spanish, German, French, Italian and Portuguese.
Search by subject or browse 2,600+ full-text titles, predominantly scholarly journals and books in social sciences, history, humanities, and science and mathematics, to their earliest issues. Many titles extend as far back as late 19th or early 20th centuries; most recent 3-5 years often not included. JSTOR provides access to more than 12 million academic journal articles, books, and primary sources in 75 disciplines.
