You might want to do some background research in encyclopedias and reference materials to get some background information and develop some ideas for potential topics and keywords. These resources provide generally accepted knowledge about your topic and can help you gain a foundational understanding of it. As you develop your research topic, keep a list of keywords to use when searching databases. Try searching some of the reference resources listed below:
Reference e-books on a wide range of topics. Sources include dictionaries, encyclopedias, key concepts, key thinkers, handbooks, atlases, and more. Search by keyword or browse titles by topic.
Over 1200 cross-searchable reference e-books on a wide variety of subjects.
The databases below are specific to the field of agriculture.
➡ Time-saving Tip: Start with Agricola via Ebscohost and click "Choose Databases" at the top and check the box for "Academic Search Premier" and "General Science Full Text (H. W. Wilson)" and click OK to search three science/interdisciplinary databases at once.
Provides a comprehensive view of the agricultural industry. Comprised of nearly 200 titles, researchers will have access to current and authoritative content that spans the industry - from practical aspects of farming to cutting edge scientific research in horticulture.
A lot of agriculture research will appear in the general science databases to have a broader impact and reach.
Citations, abstracts and some full-text scholarly articles covering a wide range of science and health sciences topics. Quick search tutorial
Research in agriculture can take on an interdisciplinary approach blending business, other sciences, and/or a legal aspect to your topic. Some of the following databases may introduce a new angle to your topic.
ABI/INFORM Complete provides thousands of full-text journals, dissertations, working papers, and key newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times, as well as country and industry profiles. The database covers a wide range of business topics including accounting, finance, management, marketing and real estate.
A multi-disciplinary database that provides full text for more than 4,600 journals, including approximately 3,900 peer-reviewed titles. Useful for nearly any research topic.
This interactive tutorial will walk you through the basic features of the Library Catalog.
Research databases contain mainly professional/scientific journals. Some databases may also contain newspapers, magazines, trade magazines, and other publications. Whether you're searching in the library catalog or in a research database from the library website, you'll often find a filter on the left or right sidebar to limit your results by publication type.
Most professional/scientific journals go through a rigorous editorial process called peer-review. Look at the slideshow below for hints and ways to identify whether your article has gone through that process:
The library catalog is one of the few places that labels resources as "peer reviewed" within the results. It's a clear way of identifying the type of source you're looking at within the results. View example article that's peer-reviewed.
In the library catalog and in research databases from the library website, you'll often see a sidebar filter to narrow your results by publication type. View an example search that applies a peer-review filter.
Look in the "About the Journal", "Editorial Process" or "Overview" page of the publication page to see whether the journal has a review process before publishing articles. Often times, if they go through the work of a peer-review process, they will want you to know about it and will speak to that process on one of those main pages. They will often talk about how they do a peer-review process (double blind, at least X number of reviewers, etc.). View an example overview page from Agronomy Journal.
