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Literature Reviews

This guide is designed to offer guidance for completing a literature review, and will link you to resources, techniques, and advanced approaches to conducting and writing a literature review.

Choosing a Database

Search Everything (EBSCO Discovery) - this is the search bar on the home page of the library website. With this search bar you our databases at one time; however, you may also need to search discipline-specific databases to find resources for your literature review.

There are three other ways to find databases that will be useful to your research:

  1. Research Guides - Consult the library's research guide in your discipline or area of study to find librarian-recommended databases, reference resources, and websites in your field. The research guide will also give you the contact information of the librarian, who can meet with you if you need further assistance.
  2. Online Resources A To Z - You may find databases by name or can filter by subject using the drop down menus.

Steps for Finding Articles

  1. If you know the name of the publication you are looking for you can for it using our Publication Finder tool.
  2. Locate a database using one of the methods above.
  3. Search the database with keywords using filters to limit dates, types of resources (e.g., peer-reviewed, scholarly/academic journals), other terms, etc.
  4.  Use the full-text links (PDF versions are preferred) within the database to view the article.
  5.  If the full-text is unavailable in the database, search BrowZine to see if the full-text is available in another database or in our print journals.
  6.  If not, there is an option to request it via Interlibrary Loan.

Online Reference Materials

Need credible background information on a topic?  Search one of our reference databases.

  1. Credo Reference 
    • Credo Reference is a collection of over 800 reference books, including dictionaries, encyclopedias, and handbooks-- background information to begin your research.
  2. Opposing Viewpoints
    • Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints provides information and opinions on hundreds of today's hottest social issues. It features viewpoint articles, topic overviews, full-text magazines, academic journals, news articles, primary source documents, statistics, images, videos, audio files, and links to trusted websites.