Economics

Before you start researching your assignment, try to get an idea of what sorts of sources you want to find, and how many you'll need.

• Wikipedia itself should never be used as a source in an assignment.
• ...BUT in most Wikipedia articles, you can find lists of Sources and External Links which may contain resources you can use.
• Browsing Wikipedia can also give you a good sense of the breadth and depth of any given topic: whether there's enough information on which to base an entire research project.
• Of course, traditional encyclopedias have bibliographies too - and you know you can trust their information! Why not try searching Credo Reference for your topic instead?

Don't neglect books in your research! Articles may seem easier because they're shorter and can be accessed online, BUT:

• Books are much better at giving a general overview of a subject - articles are very specific.
• Articles are usually written for experts in the field, not beginners. They're tougher reads!
• Using a book doesn't mean you have to read the WHOLE book. Find 1 or 2 relevant chapters and stick to those - or look through the index to find which pages discuss your topic.

Search the Library Catalog

Searching the catalog at Kistler Library will return many of the e-books to which our community has access. If you want to search only for e-books, you can follow these steps:

1. Go to the catalog main page, and click on the Power Search link below the main search box.
2. On the next page, enter your search terms into the appropriate field. Then, in the second area marked Search Limits, select BOOKS from the drop-down menu marked "type" and ONLINE from the menu marked "location."
3. Click the button marked Search.

A link to the book will be included in the catalog record, labeled URL. From off-campus, you will need to log in with your Rosemont email username and password to access the book.

Search e-Book Collections

The Library pays for you to have access to many e-books. These collections can be searched directly.

eBooks on EBSCOhost

• Provides access to nearly 1,000 electronic versions of print books in the fields of business and economics, education, psychology, health and medicine, political science and technology.

ACLS Humanities E-Book Collection

• A digital collection of over 2500 full-text, cross-searchable titles in the humanities offered by the American Council of Learned Societies in collaboration with various member societies of the ACLS and 250 publishers.

​JSTOR eBook Collection

Free e-Books

Free collections of e-books can also be searched at:

• Online Books Page
• Project Gutenberg

​Please note, however, that the books included in these sites are often free because they are in the public domain, so many of them may be older works and/or contain outdated information.

We have a wide variety of electronic databases to search for articles. In fact, deciding which database to use can be an intimidating challenge. Our advice:

• For most general assignments in introductory courses, use a multi-subject full-text database: OmniFile (more often for sciences or social science) or Project Muse (more often for humanities).
• For more advanced assignments or specific topics you can't find enough information on, try more subject-specific databases.

Many of the articles listed online in our databases are available in full text, but not all! Sometimes when you find an article in a database, only the citation will be listed, not a full text link to the content of the article.

When this happens, try the following steps:

1. Search for the title of the journal that contains the article in our Full Text Electronic Journal Locator. If we have full text access to the journal through any of our databases, it'll appear in the Locator.
2. Search for the title of the journal in the Library Catalog to determine whether we have it in print. It's unlikely, but it never hurts to check!
3. If we don't own the journal in any form, you can request a copy of it through Interlibrary Loan, or try to find it at an area library.

Why wouldn't it be?!

Sorry - but not all information sources are something you should cite in a paper! Here are some warning signs your bibliography might bring down your grade:

• You've cited Wikipedia or a webpage you found with Google.
• Your citations are from dictionaries or encyclopedias.
• Your teacher asked for "scholarly sources," but you're not sure what that means, so you just used whatever.
• One or more of your sources is less than a page long.
• You're trying to find how to cite "something my dad told me" or "a TV show I saw" in Chicago style.
• You're writing on political science and the book you're reading is so old it's falling apart.
• The source you're using includes a lengthy essay on why people who disagree with the author are wrong.

What makes one resource better than another?

There's a method for determining the quality of a resource, and it has a great name: the CRAAP test.

Currency: how recent the resource is. Is the resource outdated? Does your paper topic need something written more recently?

Relevance: how much the resource has to do with your topic. Is it really about what your paper is on?

Authority: who wrote the resource and what their credentials are. Does it say who wrote it? Do they know what they're talking about? How do you know?

Accuracy: whether the information in the resource is correct. Are you sure the resources is free of errors and misinformation?

Purpose: the author's reason for writing the resource. Do they have an agenda that biases their opinion? Are they trying to educate or just entertain?

Further Reading:

That bibliography isn't just there for decoration! How effectively you use your sources in your paper can make all the difference to your grade.