LibGuides: COM 104 Crtitical Thinking in Public Argument: Library Guides

The Information Life Cycle Tutorial

Scholarly vs. Popular Sources & the CRAAP Test

Distinguishing Scholarly vs. Popular Sources

Anatomy of a Research Article

CRAAP Test

How to Spot Fake News

How to Avoid Plagiarism

"Avoiding Plagiarism" by Purdue OWL
Sound advice from a very highly regarded online resource.
Accidental Plagiarism
A concise, informative tutorial on avoiding plagiarism.
EBSCO - How to Avoid Plagiarism

Using Quick Search

UNLV Libraries Quick Search
You can limit to scholarly/peer reviewed journals on Quick Search & also limit to the Social Work discipline.

When to Use Quick Search:

you are first starting your research
to get ideas or background info you have had difficulty finding sources in other databases you need
an alternative to Google - easy searching but with more credible/reliable results

On the left sidebar, you can "Refine Your Search" a number of different ways--including by publication date & scholarly/peer reviewed sources.

UNLV Libraries Databases

Las Vegas Review Journal (NewsBank)
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1996-
Full text of articles, not including images. Use microfilm to get photos or advertisements.
Las Vegas Review Journal Archive (1929-1996)
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3/30/1929-present
Nevada daily newspaper. 1929-1996 is page images only; 1997- is article text only, no images.

Las Vegas Sun

Newspaper Source Plus
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Regional newspapers and broadcast television transcripts.

Newspaper Source provides full text coverage for 40 national and international newspapers including USA Today, The Christian Science Monitor, The Times (London), and The Toronto Star. Selected full text is offered from more than 330 regional newspapers including The Buffalo News, Orange County Register, Philadelphia Inquirer, San Francisco Chronicle, and St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Full text transcripts are available from CBS News, CNN, CNN International, FOX News, National Public Radio, and more.
US Newsstream
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1980s-
Searchable current and recent articles from newspapers, including Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

Full text of articles from major national newspapers: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Christian Science Monitor, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, USA Today. Also included are the New York Times Book Review, the New York Times Magazine, and the Las Vegas Review Journal.

Nexis Uni
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Searchable published news, legal, medical and business information.

The news section delivers the full text of international, national and regional newspapers along with wire services, broadcast transcripts, magazines, and non-English language sources. The legal section contains U.S. Federal and state case law, codes, regulations, legal news, law reviews and international legal information. This includes Shepard's Citations for all U.S. Supreme Court cases back to 1789. The medical section supplies information from news and medical journals, and provides abstracts to medical news from Medline. The business section includes business news journals, company financial information, SEC filings and reports, and industry and market news.
Academic Search Premier
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Searchable articles from academic and professional journals and magazines covering every academic discipline.

Update frequency: Updated daily
This excellent one-stop resource lets you search citations and summaries by keyword and then instantly retrieve the full text of articles from journals online. The Get Text button helps you locate any article without linked full text in alternate online sources or in UNLV's print journal collection.
CQ Researcher
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1923-
In depth research on controversial topics ranging from social issues to environment, health, education, science, and technology issues.

Balanced information on all sides of an issue, including comments from experts in the field, numerous charts and graphs, a pro-con feature, a chronology, a lengthy bibliography for additional research, and a list of contacts are included in each report.

UNLV Libraries Quick Search
Searches for books and e-books, journal articles, videos, newspaper articles and more in UNLV's databases and collections.

Roper Center - iPOLL Databank
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The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, located at Cornell University, is one of the world’s leading archives of social science data, specializing in data from public opinion surveys.

Most of the data are from surveys conducted on national samples from the United States, though over 100 other nations are also represented.

Google Scholar

Finding Government Information

Government information can be very useful when searching a wide variety of topics. One of the easiest ways is to go to Google! After you type in your keywords, then type in site:gov (example: air pollution site:.gov) to limit your search to only government-related resources. This will include federal, state, and local resources.

UNLV Government Information

UNLV Libraries--Data & Statistics Resources

Think Tanks/Research Organizations

American Enterprise Institute
Think tank engaged in public policy research promoting freedom, opportunity and enterprise
Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program.
See for example, their full-text report: The State of Metropolitan America.
Congress on New Urbanism
Provides some full-text reports on urban development.
Lewis Mumford Center (University at Albany).
An urban policy center. See, for example, the full-text annual Mumford lectures.
Cato Institute
Promoting an American public policy based on individual liberty, limited government, free markets and peaceful international relations
Heritage Foundation
Heritage Foundation is a conservative research think tank based in Washington D.C. Read studies and papers on free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, etc.
National League of Cities
The National League of Cities (NLC) is dedicated to helping city leaders build better communities.
Pew Research Center
Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world.
RAND Corporation
The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis.
Urban Affairs Association (UAA)
Lists numerous links under "Resources"
Urban Institute
Is concerned with economic & social issues. Provides full-text reports.
KnowledgePlex
A comprehensive news, tools and information resource for the affordable housing and community development field.
U.S. Green Building Council
The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is transforming the way we design, build, maintain and operate our buildings, homes and communities.
Milken Institute
A nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank, the Milken Institute believes in the power of capital markets to solve urgent social and economic challenges and improve lives.

RAND Reports
Think tank reports and documents on social and political issues.

Searches the RAND archive of over 17,000 titles dating back to 1948. RAND publications deal with such issues as national defense, education and training, health care, criminal and civil justice, labor and population, science and technology, community development, international relations, and regional studies.