Answered By: Kathryn Park
Last Updated: Jul 23, 2024     Views: 140

We have a couple of databases that can help you think of topics for you paper. The best ones for the sciences are Gale in Context Science and Science Online. They both have browse options where you can see lists of topics, under broad categories like Biology or Physics. 

Once you've found a topic in these databases, you will automatically have some articles from them. To get more, try OneSearch. OneSearch searches almost all our databases simultaneously, so you don't have to know which database is best ahead of time. while still being able to find articles, streaming media, books, eBooks and more. It's also the best strategy for hard to find topics. 

Once you've done a search you can save time by using options on the right side of the screen

  1. You can use the OneSearch pull down menu to re-run your search restricting to online only resources, library catalog or articles.
  2. Use Sort By to re order your result list by: Relevance, Date-newest, Date-oldest, Author or Title.
  3. Use Availability to limit to Peer-reviewed journals, Full Text Online or Available in the Library
  4. Use Source Type to limit to things like Articles, Books, newspapers and more. This will vary depending on your search.
  5. Use Date to limit results to a date range.
  6. Use Subject to narrow down your topic. This will vary depending on your search.

Want more? Try How to Use OneSearch

Did you know? Our databases provide citations!

How you get them varies for each platform, but it's easy once you know how. Go to the Grab a Citation page in the Cite APA Style and Cite MLA Style guides to get step by step instructions with screen shots. 

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