Useful Links
Table of Contents
Local Library Sources
Mount Hebron High School Media Center
Search for books - click on PAC
Search the databases - click on MackinVia
Howard County Public Library
Search for books - http://www.hclibrary.org
Research tools and Database - http://hclibrary.org/new-a-main/a-student-middle-high-school/
The HC Library also has great online resources and databases that can be accessed using the bar code from your library card to search the databases. The online tools link will take you to their online databases.
Maryland’s Public Information Network
Online databases and access to libraries across the state.
Peer-Reviewed Journals and Scholarly Search Engines
Scholarly Journals -
Google Scholar - http://scholar.google.com
Find abstracts and the occasional full article on your topic.
Directory of Open Access Journals - http://www.doaj.org
Over 300,000 articles from scholarly journals.
JSTOR - https://www.jstor.org/
One of the largest databases for scholarly journals; students can create an account and access up to 100 articles for free!
ResearchGate - https://www.researchgate.net/search
Shared research publication site.
Social Science Research Network
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/DisplayJournalBrowse.cfm
The Social Science Research Network (SSRN) is a collection of papers from the social sciences community. It is a highly interdisciplinary platform used to search for scholarly articles related to 67 social science topics. SSRN has a variety of research networks for the various topics available through the free scholarly database.
The site offers more than 700,000 abstracts and more than 600,000 full-text papers. There is not yet a specific option to search for only full-text articles, but, because most of the papers on the site are free access, it's not often that you encounter a paywall. There is currently no option to search for only peer-reviewed articles.
Scholarly Search Engines
Clinical Medicine Publications
Pubmed and PubHealth
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/
You can search for journal article citations and abstracts related to medical topics. There are some articles with links to full-text articles available at no charge. Type AND free full text[sb] at the end of your search to limit to free full-text articles.
Perio
A site devoted to periodontal and dental issues.
STEM and Government Publications
arXiv
arXiv is a free distribution service and an open-access archive for nearly 2.4 million scholarly articles in the fields of physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, statistics, electrical engineering and systems science, and economics. Materials on this site are not peer-reviewed by arXiv.
Science Open
ScienceOpen provides researchers with a wide range of tools to support their research – all for free. Here is a short checklist to make sure you are getting the most of the technological infrastructure and content. What can a researcher do on ScienceOpen?
Multi-dimensional search in millions of article records for quick orientation: Filter your search by 18 filters including open access, preprint, author, affiliation, keyword, content type, source, and more. Sort your results by Altmetric score, citations, date, usage, and rating. Use the article Collections by other researchers to help narrow your search.
Export search results in EndNote, BibTex, and Reference Manager (RIS) formats for easy integration with other reference management systems. Up to 200 citations exported at a time.
Save your search to find the newest articles in your field with one click. ScienceOpen is adding thousands of articles to the database daily.
SCIRUS
Elsevier's Science Direct
WorldWide Science
https://worldwidescience.org/
Government Science Publications
Online Courses, Lectures, Etc.
MIT Open Courseware
Free courses on a variety of subjects.
Academic Earth
Browse lectures at schools such as Harvard, Stanford, and Yale; post questions/comments.
Open Culture
Free audiobooks, language lessons, academic podcasts, classes, and videos.
HC Online Classes
http://hclibrary.org/research/online-classes/
lynda – tutorials on software, coding, etc.
Test Prep – AP, SATs, etc.
Khan Academy
Free resources in all subject areas. Videos and other materials. Also links to outside content from partners like MIT.
WolframAlpha
Type in a question and it will provide expert-level answers.
General Useful Sites
Google Books
Find full books, or link to local libraries that have the books available. If you have a current HoCo library card, you can ask them to order you books that are at other county libraries.
Wikipedia
Use it as a starting point to find information and then follow the links to the original sources. Do not cite directly from Wikipedia, as it is socially edited.
Futurity
An online news source featuring the latest discoveries from North America's leading research universities. Scholarly articles on earth and the environment, health and medicine, science and design, and society and culture.
Multimedia Sources
Be sure to look for scholarly videos. Google Video will search a variety of video sites, including YouTube. Documentaries, high-level series on streaming sources, TedTalks - all are good Multimedia options to explore!
YouTube EDU - https://www.youtube.com/education – academic videos from over 300 colleges and universities
TED Talks: http://www.ted.com/ - Talks on a variety of topics from professionals around the world.
PBS LearningMedia: pbslearningmedia.org/toolsandresources
Podcasts
Look for podcasts on any subject from reputable sources.
Human Sources
See the handout for locating human sources (2nd quarter). Interviews, emails, and other forms of personal communication that yield information which aides your research are all sources.
News Sites -
Google Custom Search–
https://cse.google.com/cse?cx=000684568398379081761:otjrs4adx1g
A search of major news sites can yield excellent articles.
Infotopia
https://www.infotopia.info/maldives_atoll.html
A search engine that pulls from reliable news sources on a variety of topics.
ProPublica
A news site clearinghouse devoted to neutral reporting.
Other Digital Tools
A handy tool in Google Documents…
If you are scouting for sources, you can use Google Docs to help. Open a document. Go to Tools and Research. You can search the web for information and drag it into the document, where it will save it and create a citation for you.
Online Tools to Assist with Citing Sources:
Noodle Tools (available in MackinVia)
Creates citations for you in MLA or APA. You can log in from school through the Databases or from home using the login information in your agenda book.
Purdue University:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/ and click “Research and Citation”
Duke University:
http://library.duke.edu/research/citing/
Bookmarking and Saving Research
Zotero
URL Shortening Tools (to assist with shortening long URLs for citations)
Tiny URL
Bitly
Creating Websites:
Google Sites - http://sites.google.com/
Weebly - http://www.weebly.com
Forms
http://docs.google.com – Choose “Create New” and “Form”
Want to make a survey that people can complete online? How about adding an evaluation page to your website? Use Google Forms.
University Websites
University of Maryland Baltimore County Library - http://www.umbc.edu/aok/main/
Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab (APL) - http://lib2.jhuapl.edu
University of Maryland at Baltimore- Health Sciences Library/Law Library - http://www.umaryland.edu/library
Morgan University Library - http://library.morgan.edu
Coppin State University Library - http://www.coppin.edu/library
Towson University Library - http://cooklibrary.towson.edu
Online Encyclopedia, Dictionary, and Reference Materials
Internet Public Library - http://www.ipl.org/div/teen/aplus/
Dictionary - http://www.dictionary.com
Uncle Sam's Reference Shelf - http://www.census.gov/stat_abstract/
Library of Congress - http://www.loc.gov/index.html
Glossary of Research Terms - https://www.goodfellow.com/usa/resources/glossary-scientific-terms
Social and Current Issues Links
The Washington Post - http://www.washingtonpost.com
The Baltimore Sun - http://www.baltimoresun.com/
Social Issues (I) - http://www.multcolib.org/homework/sochc.html
High School Debate Topics - http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/hsdebate.html
Issues and Causes - http://dir.yahoo.com/Society_and_Culture/Issues_and_Causes/
Social Issues (II) - http://www.multcolib.org/homework/sochc.html