Start your research
OneSearch is a great place to start with if you aren't sure exactly what you are looking for and want to see what is out there for information!
In OneSearch you can find print and eBooks, journal articles, news, streaming video, images, primary sources and more.
Remember! Library databases do not function the same way as Google or other search engines. If you put an entire question into the search box, you will get results, but often they may not be relevant to your topic. Follow the steps below to break your question into keywords for better searches!
1. Take your topic or research question and break it into keywords or phrases.
Example) How do the distinct challenges and societal perceptions faced by climate refugees in the United States impact immigration policies?
2. Think of synonyms or related terms to come up with additional keywords you could use.
Example)
| Keyword 1: climate refugees | Keyword 2: United States | Keyword 3: immigration policies |
|---|---|---|
| environmental refugees | United States of America | migration policies |
| forced migration | America | emigration |
| environmental migration | U.S. | government policies |
| climate migration | U.S.A. | public policy |
Hint! Use a thesaurus and the Internet to help you come up with additional keywords.
Search Strings
Combine keywords and phrases to form a "search string."
Example) "climate refugees" AND immigration policies AND "United States"
or... ("climate refugees" OR "climate change") AND immigration AND "United States" AND policies
AND tells the database you are looking for ALL of the listed terms and will narrow your results
OR tells the database you want EITHER of the listed terms and will help expand your results if you're not finding what you're looking for
You can also use NOT to tell the database you do NOT want to see sources with the specified term(s).
Quotes
Notice how key phrases are grouped together with quotation marks.
Ex.) "climate refugees" / "United States"
Using quotes tells the database to search for the words together as a phrase instead of searching for each word independently. Note that while this can be a very helpful tool, especially when you are looking for a very specific phrase, sometimes you might want to try searching for the terms without quotes. It's a good idea to try searches using quotes around key phrases and without to see which results in better results.
Filters
Filters are a useful tool in narrowing your search results to the specific type of source you are looking for. The most common filters you will likely use are:
- Publication Date - typically you will look for sources published within the past 5-10 years, but depending on your research question or topic that range could change.
- Material Type - this filter is helpful when you are looking specifically for books, articles, or another type of resource. Be sure to consider which resource type will best fit your needs before applying this filter.
- Peer Reviewed - if you are looking for academic articles, you will most likely want to use the "Peer Reviewed" filter as these articles are often considered the "gold standard" of scholarly articles.
Although these are the most common types of filters people use when searching for resources, do not limit yourself to these and feel free to explore and use other available filters as you feel are useful and appropriate for your research.
Expand your research
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EconLit This link opens in a new windowEconLit, published by the American Economic Association, provides bibliographic coverage of a wide range of economics-related literature. An expanded version of the Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) indexes of journals, books, and dissertations, EconLit covers both economic theory and application. Over 80% of all current records include abstracts. Also included are full-text of book reviews published in the Journal of Economic Literature since 1993. The database also includes links to full-text of some 40,000 working papers in economics.
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NBER Working Papers This link opens in a new windowPreliminary research sponsored by the nation's most prestigious nonprofit economics research organization. All working papers since 1994
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ABI/INFORM Collection This link opens in a new window
ABI/INFORM Collection includes full-text journals and titles from the business press as well as key trade publications, dissertations, conference proceedings, and market reports.
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American Economic Association Journals This link opens in a new windowCollection of journals published by the American Economic Association (AEA). Titles include: American Economic Review, Journal of Economic Literature, Journal of Economic Perspectives and AEA Papers and Proceedings.
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Cambridge Journals (Humanities & Social Sciences) This link opens in a new window
From Cambridge Core, Trinity's access to a collection of journals from Cambridge University Press. Current subscription is to the Humanities and Social Sciences Collection. Note: not all items are full-text.
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Sage Journals This link opens in a new window
Contains more than 1,000 journals in Business, Humanities, Social Sciences, and Science, Technology and Medicine.
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Project MUSE (Journals & E-Books) This link opens in a new window
Full text of all journals of the John Hopkins University Press as well as some other selected university publishers. An important academic resource for the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Coverage generally from 1990s forward. Trinity also has full-text access to select eBooks from Project MUSE.
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Research Databases (A-Z List)Browse our list of databases and filter by subject to find additional recommended databases to search.
U.S. Data
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Sage Data This link opens in a new window
Repository of standardized and structured statistical data from Sage. Trinity subscribes to the Basic module, EASI Market Planner, and the China Data Center (Subnational Data).
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED II) This link opens in a new window
Offers over 800 economic time-series downloadable as Excel files.
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Social Explorer This link opens in a new windowAn online resource for demographic data on the United States. Information can be generated in either reports or maps. Coverage begins with the 1790 Census and continues through the recent American Community Surveys. Create an individual account (required) in order to use all the database features.
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PolicyMap This link opens in a new window
An online U.S. national data and mapping tool and analytics platform with multidisciplinary applications. It is used in research related to social sciences, urban studies, real estate and housing analysis, community and economic development, public administration, public health, policy and political science, education, business, economics, statistics, and geography, among others. Users can leverage thousands of U.S. data indicators in PolicyMap to perform demographic and socioeconomic analysis, from a neighborhood census block group in many cases, up to a national level, as well as create custom regions, for their research and studies.
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Data.govOfficial portal of the United States Government to search for datasets from various government agencies.
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Opportunity InsightsOpportunity Insights is a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization located at Harvard University that seeks to translate insights from rigorous, scientific research to policy change by harnessing the power of “big data” using an interdisciplinary approach. Their primary areas of research include national trends, neighborhoods, education, and racial disparities, and they provide interactive maps and tools to assist in understanding the data associated with these topics.
Global Data
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World Bank: Open Data This link opens in a new windowOffers time-series data for 226 countries on topics ranging from GDP, education, population to water pollution, trade, taxes, income and foreign direct investment.
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OECD data This link opens in a new windowFind research documents and statistics published by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, an international organization that supports democracy and a market economy. Offers standard international data (GDP, etc.), as well as more unique data series (biotechnology, broadband infiltration, etc.).
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Eurostat This link opens in a new windowOffers data on a range of economic indicators (and other indicators) for Europe: national accounts, financial accounts, population, health, labor market, tourism, prices, balance of payment, etc. You can click on "English" for English version.
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Bloomberg terminal This link opens in a new window
The Bloomberg terminal provides access to the same financial data, news, and analytics used by professionals in business, finance, and government worldwide.
More Data
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ICPSR This link opens in a new window
ICPSR (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research) maintains a data archive of more than 250,000 files of research in the social and behavioral sciences. It hosts 21 specialized collections of data in education, aging, criminal justice, substance abuse, terrorism, and other fields. Users must register to download data.
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Data & Statistics DatabasesOur complete list of the data & statistics databases you have access to as a Trinity student.
Federal Information
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Govinfo This link opens in a new windowOfficial publications from all three branches of the federal government.
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Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) This link opens in a new windowOffers graphical and tabular data about U.S. gross domestic product, personal income and outlays, corporate profits, fixed assets, income, balance of payments, investment, and annual industry data, as well as state and local numbers, and foreign trade.
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Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) This link opens in a new windowFrom the U.S. Department of Labor the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has ready-made tables or custom tables with data on wages, unions, employment, prices, base on demographic data, data by industry, occupation, business costs and geography, as well as data from National Longitudinal Surveys.
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U.S. Census Bureau This link opens in a new window
Primary source for demographic publications and statistics on the United States.
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Housing & Urban Development (HUD) Datasets This link opens in a new window
Provides data on the American Housing Survey, median family incomes and income limits, housing discrimination, the HUD-insured multifamily housing stock, and the public housing population.
Connecticut Information
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CT State Library Research ResourcesIncluding information on legislative histories, state records, CT towns and counties, and more.
Related Guides
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Nexis UNI This link opens in a new window
Nexis Uni™ features news, business and legal sources from LexisNexis®, including U.S. Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1790. Personalization features include Alerts and saved searches and a collaborative workspace with shared folders and annotated documents.
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Access World News Research Collection (Newsbank) This link opens in a new windowA full-text news resource consisting of local, regional, national and international sources. Updated daily, it offers primary source information on today’s issues and events from newspapers, newswires, transcripts, video clips, web only, and blogs.
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Times Digital Archive This link opens in a new windowArchive of the Times of London. Coverage: 1785-2019.
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Economist Digital Archive This link opens in a new windowComplete coverage of every issue of this important weekly publication from the U.K., 1843-2020.
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Financial Times (website subscription) This link opens in a new window
Site-wide subscription to the Financial Times website. Coverage begins with 2004.
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U.S. Major Dailies (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Includes recent and current content of the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post. Coverage: 1980-current. Individual titles have varying coverage dates.
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Newspaper DatabasesBrowse additional newspaper and magazine databases available to you via the library.
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AllSides Media Bias RatingsAllSides Media Bias Ratings™ make media bias transparent, helping you to easily identify different perspectives so you can get the full picture and think for yourself.
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Media Bias/Fact CheckA website dedicated to promoting "awareness of media bias and misinformation by rating the bias, factual accuracy, and credibility of media sources" (About) using a transparent methodology to evaluate media outlets. They have evaluated over 7400 media sources, journalists, and politicians.
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Brookings Institution This link opens in a new window
The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to conduct and present in-depth, nonpartisan research to improve policy and governance at local, national, and global levels.
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Cato Institute This link opens in a new windowA non-profit, non-partisan research foundation headquartered in Washington, D.C. with a libertarian philosophy emphasizing limited government, free markets, individual liberty and peace.
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American Enterprise Institute - Economics(right-leaning)
A nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank that researches and analyzes political, economic, and social policies and issues with the goal of expanding freedom, increasing individual opportunity, and strengthening the free enterprise system in America and around the world. -
Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR)(center-left leaning)
A nonprofit think tank specializing in economic policy and dedicated to promoting "democratic debate on the most important economic and social issues that affect people’s lives," (About). -
Economic Policy Institute(center-left leaning)
A nonprofit, nonpartisan American think tank that researches and analyzes the economic impact of policies and proposals on working America. -
Hoover Institution(center-right leaning)
A nonprofit public policy think tank, associated with Stanford University, seeking to address some of the biggest challenges facing the nation, including: education, economic prosperity, empowering state and local government, and more. -
Institute for New Economic Thinking(left-leaning)
A nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank devoted to developing and sharing the ideas that can repair our broken economy and create a more equal, prosperous, and just society. -
Find PolicyFind policy through targeted searches, from think tanks and research organizations across the world.
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Open Think Tank DirectoryThe Open Think Tank directory pulls together key public information from roughly 4,000 policy organizations worldwide, so you can find think tanks focusing on your areas of interest.
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Economics A-ZThis hyperlinked dictionary come from the Economist magazine. It defines many common terms in the field.
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CQ Researcher plus Archive This link opens in a new windowDetailed reports on important public policy and social issues, for example women's health, education, public financing, etc.
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The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Business, Labor, and Economic History
by
Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780199738816Publication Date: 2013-07-08Information about the concepts, institutions and organizations, events, and individuals that have shaped the history of business, labor, and economics from the origins of what later became the United States in an earlier age of globalization and the expansion of capitalism to the present. Covers 17th century to present. -
The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics
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Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781349951888Publication Date: 2018-02-05Includes entries on topical issues such as gender and economics, recent economic crises in the European Union and beyond, health economics, and the economics of the Internet. -
Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World
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Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780195176322Publication Date: 2008-03-28Major world developments, with close attention to social, economic, cultural, and political topics. 1750 to present. The Encyclopedia contains articles on world events; countries; organizations; regions; ethnic groups; and themes such as social history, demography, family life, politics, economics, religion, thought, education, science and technology, and culture.
- ECON-223 Fiscal Policy in 21st Century (Zannoni)
- ECON-304 Macroeconomics Booms and Recessions (Zannoni)
- ECON-431 Fiscal Policy in the US
- ECON-431 How Economies Grow (Zelada-Aprili)
- Economics
- Finding and Using Data
- Fiscal Policy in the US: Build Back Better
- Fiscal Policy in the US: Covid-19 Pandemic
- Introduction to U.S. Census Data
- The Black American Political Economy: Cycle of Black Economic Inequality
Get help with your research
Meet Your Librarian!
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Schedule an appointment with a Student Technology Assistant (STA)
- STAs will assist you with a wide range of project support.
- STAs help with technologies like: 3-D printing, digital video and audio production, Power Point, Keynote, poster designs, Oculus Rift VR, image editing using Photoshop and more.
- Located on Level 1 of the Library in the Center for Digital Scholarship.
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Trinity College's Peer Tutoring Cooperative
- Connect to a range of peer tutoring opportunities across campus.
- Covers different disciplines and research and academic support and assistance.
- The Peer Tutoring Cooperative includes: The Writing Center, Aetna Quantitative Center, Blume Language Culture & Learning Center, Peer Research Assistants in the Library, Academic Advising and Trinity's Subject-Based Tutoring Center.
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Research Handout - Getting StartedA worksheet guiding you through the topic development process of your research and getting you started searching for sources through library databases using keywords.
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Source Evaluation WorksheetThis worksheet guides you through some of the considerations to take into account when evaluating sources. It includes red flags to pay attention to within a source (vertical reading), as well as strategies for looking at other sources (lateral reading) to determine reliability.