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Search Tips
Boolean operators connect your search terms in order to narrow or widen your search results from a database. The three main operators are AND, OR, and NOT.
- AND includes other terms and widens your results.
- Ex: houselessness AND mental health
- OR connects multiple terms and broadens your results.
- Ex: houselessness OR homelessness
- NOT excludes certain words and narrows your results.
- Ex: houselessness NOT youth
Quotes and asterisks are other helpful tools that you can use when using databases.
- Quotes around a certain phrase tells the database to search those two words together and in a specific order.
- Ex: if you wanted to research LGBTQ youth, you might search "LGBTQ youth" in order to avoid results that only mention "LGBTQ" or "youth".
- Asterisks are used in truncation, a technique that broadens your search to include various word endings and spellings. An asterisk is placed at the end of the root of the word you are searching.
- Ex: searching "child*" would give you results that contain the terms child, childs, children, childrens, or childhood.
Research Resources
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Dissertations & Theses Global [ProQuest] (Full text 1997+, plus selected older dissertations; abstracts and citations 1861+) This link opens in a new window Includes 1.7 million full text dissertations (1997+, plus selected older dissertations). Also includes 3.8 million citations for 1861+. Includes a growing number of foreign dissertations.
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Policy Commons This link opens in a new windowComprehensive and current grey literature database including 4 modules with tens of millions of reports, blogs, papers, and podcasts from thousands of think tanks, IGOs, NGOs, research agencies, and governments.
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Open Research Reports (JSTOR) JSTOR hosts a growing curated collection of more than 50,000 open research reports from 187 think tanks and research institutes from around the world. Research reports provide current analysis on many of today’s most discussed and debated issues from a diversity of ideological and international perspectives representing 40 countries and 29 languages
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USA.gov Meta-site for government agencies, information & services.
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History Commons: Indigenous Peoples Social Justice and Culture This link opens in a new window 100,000+ blogs, magazines, videos, podcasts, tweets, newspapers, and other content from more than 1,000 organizations representing indigenous perspectives.
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History Commons: LGBTQ+ Social Justice and Culture This link opens in a new window A collection of blogs, podcasts, videos, zines, and more from over 1,000 organizations representing activist voices from the 1980s to today, with a special focus on content at risk of disappearing, especially in oppressive countries.
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History Commons: Refugees, Migration, and Borders Social Justice and Culture This link opens in a new window Stories from and about refugee and migrant communities from Cold War migrations to current displacements.
Discover Advanced Search
Use Request Item to get books from other campuses
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GenderWatch 1970+ [ProQuest] This link opens in a new window Full text publications on the impact of gender across a broad spectrum of subject areas.
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Google Scholar This link opens in a new window SIGN IN to Google Scholar. Find Settings on the menu. Choose "Library Links," search for Smith College, then SAVE to activate links to full text at Smith.
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PsycINFO [EBSCO] 1887+ This link opens in a new window Worldwide coverage of 1300+ journals, books and dissertations in the behavioral sciences, psychology, mental health, medicine, etc.
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PubMed (Medline) 1950s+ This link opens in a new window Lists over 14 million biomedical articles back to the 1950's. Check out the PubMed Tutorial.
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Research Guides by Subject (Smith College Libraries) Find subject specific resources (books, articles, reference tools, websites, etc.), subject-expert librarians, and specialized help.
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Find NewsSmith links to news sites & databases
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Ethnic NewsWatch 1960+ [ProQuest] This link opens in a new window Full text newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press.
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ICT Previously Indian Country Today, ICT is an independent, nonprofit, multimedia news enterprise that covers Indigenous peoples.
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Nexis Uni (Coverage varies by title) This link opens in a new window New Lexis-Nexis interface, with a single search box, plus filters to refine searches; users are encouraged to register for an ID & password, to take advantage of personalization features. Covers a wide range of news, business, legal & reference information; includes federal & state laws & cases.
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Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work In 1986, the founding editors created Affilia as a dedicated space for feminist voices, underrepresented in mainstream social work journals, and the topical and methodological challenges that these marginalized voices raised for the field and the discipline. Articulating innovative feminist voices and perspectives has steadfastly remained the substance of the scholarship published in the journal.
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AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples AlterNative publishes scholarly research on Indigenous worldviews and experiences of decolonization from Indigenous perspectives from around the world.
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American Indian Culture and Research Journal In print since 1971, the American Indian Culture and Research Journal (AICRJ) is an internationally renowned multidisciplinary journal designed for scholars and researchers. The premier journal in Native American and Indigenous studies, it publishes original scholarly papers and book reviews on a wide range of issues in fields ranging from history to anthropology to cultural studies to education and more.
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Feminist Theory Feminist Theory champions and shapes feminist debates globally, providing a vital critical forum for publishing and reading cutting-edge discussions of feminist theory and feminist theoretical praxis. The journal is committed to speaking to the broadest spectrum of feminism, and of gender and sexual politics, as understood across the arts, humanities and social sciences.
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Harvard Journal of Hispanic Policy The journal's mission is to serve as a resource to policy analysts and advocates in public, private, and non-profit organizations; to provide a forum for scholarship and publication on issues related to the U.S. Latino community's political, social and economic development; to provide experience to future policy analysts and advocates; and to develop interest in Latino issues.
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Online Journals Search (Publication Finder) Search for a publication title, or use options such as ISSN
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Journal of Asian American Studies Journal of Asian American Studies (JAAS) explores all aspects of Asian American experiences through original articles detailing new theoretical developments, research results, methodological innovations, public policy concerns, and pedagogical issues. The Journal also publishes book, media, and exhibition reviews. As a much-needed outlet for the increasing volume of scholarship in the field, JAAS provides an avenue for a quick and lively exchange of ideas.
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Journal of Black Studies For the last half-century, the Journal of Black Studies has been the leading source for dynamic, innovative, and creative research on the Black experience. Poised to remain at the forefront of the recent explosive growth in quality scholarship in the field of Black studies, the Journal of Black Studies is published eight times per year. This means a greater number of important and intellectually provocative articles exploring key issues facing African Americans and Blacks can now be given voice.
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Latino Studies This journal explores the local, national, transnational, and hemispheric realities that influence the Latina and Latino presence in the United States. Latino Studies presents an international research agenda that builds bridges between the academic and non-academic worlds, and promotes mutual learning and collaboration among all the Latino national groups.
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Studies in Clinical Social Work: Transforming Practice, Education and Research Studies in Clinical Social Work: Transforming Practice, Education and Research was founded in 1930 by Smith College School for Social Work (SSW) in Northampton, MA. Studies in Clinical Social Work: Transforming Practice, Education and Research is a refereed journal that serves as a forum for clinicians, social work educators, practicum instructors, and researchers to share high quality work that critically engages and advances knowledge and practice of clinical social work. The journal has a renewed commitment to publishing critical work that reflects implications for promoting racial and social justice within a clinical process as well as advancing practice with individuals, families, and small groups in oppressed and marginalized communities
Information Access in 2025
In the midst of uncertain times, librarians and researchers are finding ways to save and retrieve data that is being lost. Below you will find resources that attempt to do just that.
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Data Rescue Project The Data Rescue Project is a coordinated effort among a group of data organizations. Our goal is to serve as a clearinghouse for data rescue-related efforts and data access points for public US governmental data that are currently at risk. Efforts include: data gathering, data curation and cleaning, data cataloging, and providing sustained access and distribution of data assets.
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Take action to stop U.S. Government censorship of academic research This Declaration was developed by a group of individuals from within academic and scholarly communication spheres who are alarmed by emerging acts of censorship by the U.S. government.
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Tracking Removed and Modified Government Information & Resources (UMN) This project is an attempt to track removed and modified government information and resources, to help the public see the scope of what has been removed or modified, and to point to where preserved copies can be found, if possible.