Freshman Seminar 46p: Human Rights in Peace and War, Issues for the Next Generation -- the Research Guide  

HOLLIS for books: HOLLIS is the Harvard Library online library catalog. It lists about 15 million items, so it's a good place to "fish" for material when you're trying to decide on a paper topic. The Table of Contents in a book can give you ideas for your paper topic, while the Bibliography can give you other sources to consult and use in your research. You cannot find journal articles using HOLLIS, though. Since information in books is not the most up-to-date information available, you need to find journal articles to get more current, updated information on your topic.

The following online databases take you to scholarly journal articles (they search like Google, but their articles have been peer-reviewed and are of substantial research quality, rather than being just popular features). Many of these resources will get you the entire article immediately online 24/7/365; for others you may need to consult a printed copy in a library. As you search these, make generous use of synonyms and related words besides the first words that come to mind about a topic:

• Academic Search Premier
• Alt-Health Watch
• Alt-Press Watch
• America: History and Life
• Contemporary Women’s Issues (Health and Human Rights)
• CQ Researcher
• Declassified Documents Reference Service Online
• Ethnic NewsWatch
• Google Scholar
• HuriSearch: The Human Rights Search Engine
  
• Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals
• LegalTrac
• LexisNexis Academic
• Public Affairs Information Service International
• Studies on Women and Gender Abstracts
• United Nations Treaty Collection
  
• World News Connection
• Worldwide Political Science Abstracts

If you don't find enough material on your subject after checking these sources, you can:

1. go into the online Library Portal, at: http://lib.harvard.edu, to find more sources, and / or 

2. e-mail me (at: claguard@fas.harvard.edu) and I can help you find more.

Health Data Resources: United States: a starting point for finding and using health-related data (the most valuable item here is Diane Sredl's contact information).

Historical Statistics of the United States: the U.S. in statistics from Colonial times to the present.

ProQuest Statistical Insight: indexes and abstracts statistical content in U.S. government publications, state government publications, business and association publications, and international inter-governmental sources. Some full-text is available electronically (GIF, PDF, CSV, Excel). All publications are available in microfiche in Research Services in Lamont, Level B.

Statistical Abstract of the United States: published since 1878, this is the authoritative and comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States. PDF versions of the StatAb from 1878 to 2010 are available here.

Citation Linker: connects you to the full text of an article using a citation from a bibliography

Get It: combines HOLLIS, HOLLIS Classic, Interlibrary Loan, Borrow Direct, and Scan & Deliver to provide Harvard researchers with all your options for locating and requesting material at Harvard Library

Harvard Guide to Using Sources: an introduction to using sources in academic papers, this guide includes the chapter, Avoiding Plagiarism

Lib-X: a browser toolbar add-on; lets you search HOLLIS, E-Journal List, E- Resource List, Citation Linker, and Google Scholar quickly