LibGuides: ENGL 251: Exploring Urban Spaces: Locating Articles on Urban Spaces

Which Database?

To find research on urban spaces, a great place to start would be the Discovery Search or any of our general databases (listed to the right).

If you are focusing on the economics of city life, try searching in our business-focused databases, such as Business Source Premier.

If you are focusing on the sustainability or environmental impact of urban spaces, try searching our environmental studies databases, such as GREENR or GreenFile.

If you are looking at the history or culture of a specific city, try our humanities databases. I specifically recommend JSTOR.

If instead you are choosing to do more of a literature-focused paper, you should consult the literature databases listed to the right, especially MLA International Bibliography.

General Databases

Academic Search Elite
Academic Search Elite offers nearly 1,600 active full-text journals and magazines, more than 1,300 active full-text peer-reviewed journals, more than 670 active full-text peer-reviewed journals with no embargo, and more than 1,100 full-text journals indexed in Web of Science or Scopus. Academic Search Elite covers most disciplines, provides access to news and videos from the Associated Press.
Academic OneFile
"The premier source for peer-reviewed, full-text articles for academic libraries from the world's leading journals, this comprehensive resource covers the physical and social sciences, technology, medicine, engineering, the arts, technology, literature, and many other subjects. With millions of articles in both PDF and HTML full-text format and simultaneous, unlimited usage, researchers are able to find accurate, timely information quickly," (Gale, 2017).
Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints
"Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints is the premier online resource covering today's hottest social issues, from capital punishment to immigration to marijuana. This cross-curricular research database supports science, social studies, current events, and language arts classes. Informed, differing views help learners develop critical-thinking skills and draw their own conclusions.

Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints is a rich resource for debaters and includes pro/con viewpoints, reference articles, interactive maps, infographics, and more. A category on the National Debate Topic provides quick and easy access to content on frequently studied and discussed issues. Periodical content covers current events, news and commentary, economics, environmental issues, political science, and more.

Specific titles include The New York Times, Newsweek, Foreign Policy, American Scientist, and Education Week," (Gale, 2019).
Statista This link opens in a new window
"Statista.com is one of the first statistic portals in the world to integrate data on over 80.000 topics from over 22,500 sources onto a single professional platform. Categorized into 21 market sectors, Statista.com provides companies, business customers, research institutions, and the academic community with direct access to quantitative data on media, business, finance, politics, and a wide variety of other areas of interest or markets," (Statista.com).

Literature Databases

MLA International Bibliography
“Produced by the Modern Language Association (MLA), the electronic version of the bibliography dates back to the 1920s and contains millions of citations from journals and series, as well as book publishers. MLA International Bibliography covers literature, language and linguistics, folklore, film, literary theory and criticism, dramatic arts, as well as the historical aspects of printing and publishing. Listings on rhetoric and composition and the history, theory and practice of teaching language and literature are also included. In addition to the bibliography, the database includes the MLA Directory of Periodicals, the association's proprietary thesaurus used to assign descriptors to each record in the bibliography." (EBSCOhost, 2019).
JSTOR Collections
“JSTOR includes journal content, primary sources, images, and more across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences,” (JSTOR, 2011). Although most content found here is full-text, researchers may also find links to articles that are not available online through Morningside College. The HJF Library provides access through JSTOR to 15 Arts & Sciences Collections and 1 Life Science Collection.
Oxford English Dictionary
“The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is widely regarded as the accepted authority on the English language. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of 600,000 words— past and present—from across the English-speaking world.

As a historical dictionary, the OED is very different from Dictionaries of current English, in which the focus is on present-day meanings. You’ll still find present-day meanings in the OED, but you’ll also find the history of individual words, and of the language—traced through 3 million quotations, from classic literature and specialist periodicals to film scripts and cookery books.

The OED started life more than 150 years ago. Today, the dictionary is in the process of its first major revision. Updates revise and extend the OED at regular intervals, each time subtly adjusting our image of the English language," (OED, 2019).

No Full-Text Access?

Some databases tell you if an article exists, but do not provide full-text access to the article.

To learn how to look for full-text access in another database, in print, or online, watch this video. It covers the 3 steps to finding full-text articles:

Check Library Holdings
Check Google Scholar
Request Item Through Interlibrary Loan (ILL)

ENGL 251: Exploring Urban Spaces

Contact Us

Research Tips

Which Database?

General Databases

Literature Databases

No Full-Text Access?