Research Guides: Africana Studies: 2: Find Sources

Find Sources

Find Journal articles report the results of research by experts. Sometimes they're also called "peer-reviewed articles," "scholarly articles," or "academic articles." They are often used in academic research.

You should use journal articles because they:

Contain evidence based on research
Are written by experts
Focus on a narrow topic
Provide detailed information
Are probably more accurate because of the peer-review process
Lend credibility to your paper

Find journal articles in these databases:

Ethnic Diversity Source This link opens in a new window
With its curated full-text materials, Ethnic Diversity Source is essential to support the study of African Americans, Arab Americans, Asian Americans, European Americans, Jewish Americans, Latinx Americans, Multiracial Americans, and Native Americans, among others, with respect to their cultures, traditions, social treatment, and lived experiences. Scholarly journals, magazines, newspapers, historical documents, and biographies are complemented by primary sources, such as speeches and interviews. Complete with robust collections of videos and e-books, Ethnic Diversity Source creates a dynamic research experience for students and researchers.
America: History and Life with Full Text This link opens in a new window
America: History & Life with Full Text is the definitive database of literature covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada, from prehistory to the present. With selective selective indexing for 1,700 journals from 1955 to present, this database is without question the most important bibliographic reference tool for students and scholars of U.S. and Canadian history. America: History & Life with Full Text also provides full-text coverage of more than 200 journals and nearly 100 books.
Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
Academic Search Premier is a leading multidisciplinary research database. It provides abstracts of articles and links to full text for more than 3,430 scholarly publications covering most academic areas of study, including African and African-American related topics.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
JSTOR provides access to more than 12 million journal articles, books, images, and primary sources in 75 disciplines. For more precise searching, click on "Browse" dropdown menu and select "African Studies" or "African American Studies."

Books on a shelf Some books include research by experts, and you may want to use them in your research project.

You should use books because they:

Give a broad overview of one or more topics
Explain a complex topic (books are easier to understand than journal articles)
Offer in-depth analysis of a topic
Summarize previous research on a topic

Find books in these databases:

UNC Libraries Catalog
Searches books, eBooks, music, videos, and other items at the Michener and Skinner Libraries.
Prospector
Searches books at other libraries in Colorado and Wyoming. Request books from these libraries and have them delivered to the Michener or Skinner Libraries.

Graph on a paper Statistics can come from different sources, including the federal and state governments and non-profit organizations.

You should use statistics because they help:

Explain how widespread the problem is
Explain how severe the problem is
Convince your readers that the problem needs to be solved

Find statistics in these databases:

Pew Research Center: Black Americans
This website explores the diverse views and experiences of Black people in America with in-depth surveys and other research. Our work focuses on three themes: Black identity, the economic and social mobility of Black people in America, and Black representation in American political and social life.
U.S. Census Bureau: Black (or African American) Data Links
A website, through the US Census Bureau, that connects users to data links providing data on members of the Black (or African American) US population, including the African American: American Community Survey (ACS) Reports.
Black Demographics
BlackDemographics.com was created in 2007 to be the top resource for information regarding African Americans. It was meant to be a one stop unbiased site that showcases only the facts where people can see what Black America looks like without having to spend hours searching the Internet.

Letters Primary sources are immediate, first-hand accounts of an event, created by people who had a direct connection with it. You should use primary sources to provide direct evidence about how people thought, felt, and lived at the time.

Examples of primary sources include:

Diaries
Letters
Newspaper articles
Maps
Speeches
Interviews
Photographs
Physical artifacts

Find primary sources in these databases:

Oxford African American Studies Center This link opens in a new window
A collection focused on African American and African history and culture, featuring reference works, primary sources, images, maps, timelines, and biographies.
African American Communities This link opens in a new window
Focusing predominantly on Atlanta, Chicago, New York, and towns and cities in North Carolina this resource presents multiple aspects of the African American community through pamphlets, newspapers and periodicals, correspondence, official records, reports and in-depth oral histories, revealing the prevalent challenges of racism, discrimination and integration, and a unique African American culture and identity.
African American Historical Serials Collection This link opens in a new window
The African American Historical Serials Collection features 173 periodicals spanning from 1816 through 1922. The periodicals in this collection include newspapers and magazines, in addition to reports and annuals from various African American organizations, including churches and educational and service institutions.
African American Newspapers, 1827-1998 This link opens in a new window
Includes more than 270 African American newspapers published in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Race Relations in America: 1943-1970 This link opens in a new window
Explore three pivotal decades in the struggle for civil rights in America through the eyes and work of sociologists, activists, psychologists, teachers, ministers, students and housewives. Sourced from the records of the Race Relations Department of the United Church Board for Homeland Ministries, housed at the Amistad Research Center in New Orleans, this resource provides access to a wealth of documents highlighting different responses to the challenges of overcoming prejudice, segregation and racial tensions. These range from survey material, including interviews and statistics, to educational pamphlets, administrative correspondence, and photographs and speeches from the Annual Race Relations Institutes.

Search Effectively

Yellow, blue, and purple keys Unlike Google, library databases can't understand complete sentences. You'll need to break your topic down into the most important concepts, also called keywords, and use those keywords to search library databases.

Example topic: How does social media impact happiness among teenagers?

Keywords: social media, happiness, teenagers

Brainstorm synonyms:

Sometimes experts use different terms than we use in everyday conversation. It's important to think of synonyms and related terms for your keywords so that you can use different combinations of words to get the best results when searching.

Keyword: teenagers

Synonyms: adolescents, youth

Library databases often have built-in search tools. Try them out!

Peer-Reviewed: Limit your search to journal articles.
Discipline: Limit your search to a particular discipline (such as psychology or education).
Publication Date: Limit your search to sources published during certain years.
Subject Terms: These are like library hashtags. Limit your search to sources about that subject.

Quotation marks Experts often cite each other's work, and that can help you find more sources on your topic!

To find older relevant sources:

Find the list of sources at the end of a relevant source you've found. This may be called "bibliography," "works cited," or "references."
Look for titles in the list that relate to your topic.
Copy and paste relevant titles into a library database.

To find newer relevant sources:

When you find a relevant source in a database, look for a link called "Cited by."
Click this link to see more recent sources that may be related to your topic.