Here are some tips to help you find scholarly sources in the library on a government policy for POL201.
1. You'll want to do an advanced search in Library OneSearch for the policy you have chosen to research. You can access this feature by clicking on the link below the search box on the library homepage.
2. From here, enter a few concepts you want to search for into the advanced search boxes, one concept per box.
In the first box, you will want to type in the government policy that you are researching. Many times it helps if you put your policy in quotes to find articles that discuss it directly. For example, "No Child Left Behind." Also, if your policy can be referred to using an acronym you may want to include that as well. For example, the Americans with Disabilities Act OR ADA.
In the second box, you will want to type in keywords related to the components in your assignment prompt. For example, you are being asked to examine a policy's impact on things such as elections, media, and checks and balances. When we talk about the concept of "checks and balances," we are also talking about legislative power, executive power, separation of powers, and Congress, so these all might be some additional keywords to try in your search.
3. You can then select the "Limit to Scholarly / Peer Reviewed" limiter on the left side of the page to only display scholarly and peer-reviewed sources. You can use the other limiters, like Publication Date and Subject, to further limit your results to be more current and relevant to your needs. We usually recommend limiting your search to the last 5 or 10 years of published research.
4. If you are still not finding the kinds of articles you need, try changing the drop-down box next to the first box where you have your policy to search for articles with that phrase in the TI Title, SU Subject, or AB Abstract.
If you still have questions you can chat in real-time with a librarian here.