English : Home

Subject Areas:

• Undergraduate:
• Accounting, Business, and Economics
• Biology
• Education
• English
• World Languages and Cultures / English for Academic Purposes

• Graduate:
• Accounting
• BioInformatics
• Data Science
• Education
• MBA
• Organizational Leadership

Don't forget to browse the stacks!

Our library uses the Library of Congress Classification system.

To get started searching our physical collection, we recommend starting here:

P Philogy

PB Modern Languages

PE English Language

PN Literature (General)

PR English Literature

PS American Literature

If you are still unsure of where to look, please visit the info desk to ask for library student assistance.

Need off-campus access?

Library Services now uses OpenAthens as a proxy server! Follow these steps:

• Use library provided link to the database you wish to use.
• You will be prompted for your Juniata username and password.
• After entering your login info, you will be authenticated as a Juniata user for the remainder of your browser session.

The purpose of a Research Guide is to help get you started on your research projects. On this page, you will find our librarian's recommendations for best resources for your subject. This includes relevant resources, such as subject specific databases, citation format guidance, search tips, and contact information of the subject librarian.

Require further assistance? Reach out to your subject librarian! We are always happy to help.

Best Bets: Databases

Unsure of which Databases to search for English content?

Oxford Scholarship Online 

Alternate Name(s) Oxford University Press

16000+ scholarly books in 20 subjects with an estimated 1000 additional titles per year

SAGE Journals and Backfile 

Find over 600 peer-reviewed journals with deep back-file coverage in 20 disciplines. Browsing journals by discipline includes the following subjects: Health Sciences, Life & Biomedical Sciences, Materials Sciences & Engineering, Social Sciences & Humanities, etc.

Academic Search COMPLETE 

Designed for academic institutions, this database is a leading resource for scholarly research. It supports high-level research in the key areas of academic study by providing journals, periodicals, reports, books and more.

Chronicle of Higher Education

The Chronicle aims to empower academe and others with insights to enable higher education to build on its capacity to be a powerful force for good. Get the latest information on the ever-evolving world of higher education through a source that values integrity, independence, spirit of generosity, and excellence.

JStor 

JSTOR provides access to more than 12 million academic journal articles, books, and primary sources in 75 disciplines.

Citation Format: MLA

You may be wondering - what is included in a citation?

• Author
• Title of source
• Title of container
• Other contributors
• Version
• Number
• Publisher
• Publication date
• Location

So, how do you organize all of that information to ensure you're giving credit to the author(s)?

For online resources, we recommend Purdue Owl at: https://owl.purdue.edu/ to get started.

Remember - this to get started, you do not want to copy and paste! It is a tool to help you build the bones of your citation - always edit before turning your work in!

For a book or eBook, we recommend:

Search Tips

Getting Started:

When searching in any search engine, (databases, library catalog, google scholar, etc.) it is best to use keywords rather than typing the full question or topic. For example, if your question is:

"How do microplastics impact the environment?"

Remover the filler words such as "how", "do", "impact", "the". Break the question down into categories like this:

Next, brainstorm synonyms OR related key words. You may type words such as these in the search bar:

Advanced Search Tips:

Using Boolean Operators (AND, OR, NOT)

Boolean operators are used to either refine or expand your search. They are placed in between your keywords to yield more specific search results.

Unsure if you should use a source for your research?

Have you ever wondered if the author of a source is legitimate? Or have you ever felt overwhelmed by the amount of information you collected and start to wonder if all of your sources relate to your research topic? Does the website you found information on seem outdated or sketchy?

Check out this nifty acronym - CRAAP. Oh CRAAP! I can't tell if this source is credible...

The CRAAP Test exists to help you identify credibility and relevance of source. The purpose of the test is to sort through sources and determine whether or not some choices are appropriate for your research.