Locate background and foundational research
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Annual ReviewsThe Annual Reviews collection offers comprehensive, timely critical reviews written by leading scientists. This collection provides the worldwide scientific community with a useful and intelligent synthesis of the primary research literature for a broad spectrum of disciplines. Annual Reviews volumes are published each year for 40 focused disciplines within the Biomedical, Life, Physical, and Social Sciences including Economics and Financial Economics.
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Oxford BibliographiesSearch expert commentary and detailed annotated bibliographies to find high quality sources of information in these areas: African American Studies, African Studies, American Literature, Anthropology, Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Art History, Atlantic History, Biblical Studies, British and Irish Literature, Buddhism, Childhood Studies, Chinese Studies, Cinema and Media Studies, Classics, Communication, Criminology, Ecology, Education, Environmental Science, Evolutionary Biology, Geography, Hinduism, International Law, International Relations, Islamic Studies, Jewish Studies, Latin American Studies, Latino Studies, Linguistics, Literary and Critical Theory, Management, Medieval Studies, Military History, Music, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, Public Health, Renaissance and Reformation, Social Work, Sociology, Urban Studies, Victorian Literature
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Oxford Handbooks OnlineOxford Handbooks contain scholarly review articles in Archaeology, Business and Management, Classical Studies, Criminology and Criminal Justice, Economics and Finance, History, Law, Linguistics, Literature, Music, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, and Religion. Each handbook offers a critical survey of the current state of scholarship in a particular field of study.
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Sage KnowledgeSearches all library subscriptions from Sage Publishing including scholarly monographs, reference works, handbooks, series, professional development titles, and more.
Legislative and government information
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ProQuest Congressional This link opens in a new windowThe ProQuest Congressional Research Digital Collection (CRDC) provides full-text access to more than 5,000 Congressional committee prints published from 2004 to present and more than 23,000 Congressional Research Service reports published from 2004-present. Includes citations for bills, public laws, and Statutes at Large, and analytical abstracts of the documents. Also includes links to political parties and organizations and news sources. Coverage 1789-present.
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PluralFollow existing and introduced federal and state legislation across the country or in your state. Plural streamlines how you discover, track, and organize the bills you care about. The platform allows individuals and teams to see what’s happening with similar legislation across the country, find out where bill language reappears over time, and even predict which bills are starting to gain momentum.
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HeinOnline This link opens in a new windowHuge legal search tool with full-text of legal journals, legal histories, government documents, state and federal cases, international law and includes coverage of many older legal materials. Contains the Congressional Record, Federal Register, and Code of Federal Regulations, complete coverage of the U.S. Reports (Supreme Court) back to 1754.
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WestlawNext Campus Research (Law)WestlawNext Campus Research provides access to legal materials, including cases, statutes, and regulations of the U.S. government and the various state governments. It includes law journals, the American Jurisprudence encyclopedia, the American Law Reports, and news content.
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ICRC's Humanitarian Law & Policy"The Humanitarian Law & Policy blog is a unique space for timely analysis and debate on international humanitarian law (IHL) issues and the policies that shape humanitarian action. It is a place to identify trends, raise issues, consider future challenges and explore solutions as they pertain to IHL or humanitarian action. We bring together informed academics, practitioners and others interested in engaging in serious, open-minded discussion."
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Human Rights Documents OnlineDatabase on international human rights issues with almost 70,000 documents from nearly 700 nongovernmental human rights organizations worldwide, collected since 1980 by Human Rights Internet. They also collect grey literature material from small and large organizations working globally and locally.
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Subject Guides from the UMN Law LibraryThe University of Minnesota Law Library offers a wealth of research on legal aspects of human rights, immigration, labor, etc. Be sure to review their guides if you are seeking indepth legal insite.
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Government Publications homepageLinks and information for U.S. government documents as well as international and state documents.
Sources for interdisciplinary research articles
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Web of ScienceA comprehensive interdisciplinary collection of journal article citations. Subjects generally covered are within science and technology, arts and humanities, and social sciences. View this tutorial to learn how to go from a general idea to a very precise set of results of journal articles and scholarly materials.
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Academic Search PremierA great place to start your research on any topic, search multidisciplinary, scholarly research articles. This database provides access to scholarly and peer reviewed journals, popular magazines and other resources. View this tutorial to learn how to go from a general idea to a very precise set of results of journal articles and scholarly materials.
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ScopusSearch for information from scientific journals, books and conference proceedings. Covers the fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and arts and humanities.
NOTE: A personal free Elsevier account may be required to perform select actions in the database such as exporting results.
Sources for disciplinary research articles (selected)
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Sociological AbstractsThis core database for the field of sociology contains information on sociology and social policy worldwide. Sociological Abstracts includes citations from the 1952-present. It provides abstracting and indexing of articles and book reviews drawn from thousands of journal publications, plus books, book chapters, dissertations, conference papers, and working papers.
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Worldwide Political Science AbstractsThe database provides citations, abstracts, and indexing of the international serials literature in political science and its complementary fields, including international relations, law, and public administration & public policy from1975 to the present.
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EconLitContains bibliographic citations and selected abstracts to the professional and scholarly literature in the field of economics and allied disciplines.
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Education SourceSearch full-text education journals covering all levels of education--from early childhood to higher education--as well as all educational specialties, such as multilingual education, health education and testing.
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PubMedSearches MEDLINE, which is the primary source of journal articles for the health sciences (fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, public health, health care systems, and basic sciences). Coverage is from the 1940s to the present. View this tutorial to learn how to go from a general idea to a very precise set of results of journal articles and scholarly materials.
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Agricultural and Environmental Science DatabaseSearch journals and literature on agriculture, pollution, animals, environment, policy, natural resources, water issues and more. Searches tools like AGRICOLA, Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management (ESPM), and Digests of Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) databases.
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GenderWatchSearch articles from journals, etc. that focus on how gender impacts a broad spectrum of subject areas such as the women's movement, men's studies, the transgender community and the changes in gender roles.
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Business Source PremierFind business articles from journals and magazines in marketing, management, information technology, operations, human resources, accounting, finance and economics dating back to 1965.
Reports and research on policy and advocacy
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PAIS Index (Political Science and Public Policy)PAIS (Public Affairs Information Service) searches journals and other sources on issues of political science and public policy. This includes government, politics, international relations, human rights and more.
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Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO)Comprehensive source for theory and research in international affairs. Publishes a wide range of scholarship from 1991 onward that includes working papers from university research institutes, occasional papers series from NGOs, foundation-funded research projects, proceedings from conferences, books, journals and policy briefs.
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United Nations Human Rights Databases & RepositoriesFind a list of information repositories covering a variety of human rights topics maintained by the UN.
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Congressional Research Service (CRS) ReportsCRS reports provide Congress with both anticipatory and on-demand research and analysis to support their legislative, oversight, and representational duties. All reports adhere to the core values of CRS; they are authoritative, objective and nonpartisan. Reports range in length from several pages to more than one-hundred pages and cover the full breadth of topics of interest to Congress. Currently, only the last year of reports is available freely through this website. See ProQuest Congressional below for full coverage of CRS reports.
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Policy Commons: Global Think TanksIncludes current reports, books, articles, working papers, briefs, data sets, tables, charts, media, case studies, blog posts, and statistics from think tanks, IGOs, NGOs, and nonprofits around the world.
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OECD iLibrary This link opens in a new windowOECD iLibrary is the online publications portal of the 38-country Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. OECD iLibrary contains thousands of e-books, chapters, tables and graphs, papers, articles, summaries, indicators, databases, and podcasts. All content will be Open Access beginning in July 2024. Content is also indexed via Policy Commons.
Coverage: OECD Books, Papers and Statistics, International Energy Agency (IEA) Statistical Databases, & International Trade by Commodity Statistics
News sources - National and international
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NewsbankSearch local, regional, and national newspapers from around the US and the world. Also historical documents from the US. Search by topic or sub-collection.
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International Newsstream This link opens in a new windowInternational news from newspapers, newswires, transcripts, and digital-only news sites in full-text format. Over 800 of the world's top news sources.
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Access World NewsFull-text news from over 9,000 news sources in the U.S. and international newspapers, major wire services, and hundreds of local broadcasting outlets and blogs. There are over 100 Minnesota sources. Mostly English language news coverage with some 200 titles in Spanish, French, Afrikaans and other languages.
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ForeignAffairs.comForeign Affairs is a leading magazine & website covering American foreign policy & international relations. It is relevant for assignments & research projects about policy, political science, economics, public health, & other global issues.
Find more at the News Sources Library Guide.
Statistics and data
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Sage Data This link opens in a new windowProvides access to statistical data produced by U.S. Federal agencies, States, private organizations, and major intergovernmental organizations. There are up to 2 billion charts, maps, views, rankings, time series and tables available for use in the Data-Planet repository.
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Statista This link opens in a new windowStatista provides statistical data on many topics including media, business, politics, society, technology and education. Sources include market reports, trade publications, scientific journals, and government databases. Data can be accessed by searching or browsing by industry, topic, country, digital market or infographic. The Global Consumer Survey offers a global perspective on consumption and media usage, covering the offline and online world of the consumer. It is designed to help marketers, planners and product managers understand consumer behavior and consumer interactions with brands.
Locate organizations: Nonprofits and business
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GuideStar: The National Database of Nonprofit OrganizationsInformation on nonprofit organizations in the United States that register with the Internal Revenue Service. Includes financial information, mission, programs, board of directories and historical 990 tax returns filed with the IRS with more detail about expenditures and revenue. Search for nonprofits by location, size, and types of services.
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Foundation Directory OnlineFind grant makers, companies, grants or IRS 990 tax returns for U.S. organizations. Profiles of grant makers mission, analysis of expenses and revenue and other information. The Foundation Directory includes the publication Philanthropy News, current RFPs for grants, and literature on nonprofits from various research institutes.
Country conditions
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OECD iLibrary This link opens in a new windowOECD iLibrary is the online publications portal of the 38-country Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. OECD iLibrary contains thousands of e-books, chapters, tables and graphs, papers, articles, summaries, indicators, databases, and podcasts. All content will be Open Access beginning in July 2024. Content is also indexed via Policy Commons.
Coverage: OECD Books, Papers and Statistics, International Energy Agency (IEA) Statistical Databases, & International Trade by Commodity Statistics -
Europa World PlusEuropa World is a source of information for more than 250 countries and territories. Find facts, statistics, history, political, economic and other information including geography, media outlets, education, government agencies, trade and industry, tourism and other organizations. A major bibliography is included for each country and survey articles on various issues are listed for each major region.
Citation managers
| Feature | Zotero | Mendeley (not recommended) | EndNote 20 | EndNote Online |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | Free | Price options | Free |
| Styles | Many citation styles | Many citation styles | Many citation styles | Fewer citation styles |
| Plug-ins | Microsoft Word, Google Docs | Microsoft Word (not compatible with UMN Office 365) | Microsoft Word | Microsoft Word |
| Access | Desktop/Web | Desktop/Web | Desktop/Web | Web |
| Storage | 300MB free | 2GB free | Unlimited | 2GB free |
| PDF reader | yes | yes | yes | no |
| Editor integration | Word, Google Docs | Word | Word | Word |
| Sharing | Unlimited | Limited | Unlimited | Limited |
| Support | Zotero support | Mendeley support | EndNote 20 support | EndNote Online support |
Preventing plagiarism
Use these tools and services to learn how to incorporate outside researchers' thoughts/concepts/words/phrases into your own work.
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In-text Citations: APAThe structure (Last Name, Year) or Last Name (Year) tells your reader the origin of the surrounding information-- who wrote it and when it was published.
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In-text Citations: MLAThe structure (Last Name, Page Number) or (Page Number) tells your reader the origin of the surrounding information-- who wrote it and which page the information can be found.
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Student Writing SupportFree to students. Make online on in-person appointments to improve your writing skills.
Last Updated: Nov 4, 2025 11:59 AM
URL: https://libguides.umn.edu/HRLibraryOrientation2025