Henrietta Lacks Research Project, Spring 2025 (Bioethics, O'Connell & Wittschen): Home

All library databases are on the left hand side of the library webpage

1) Don't use complete sentences when searching library databases. Databases are not like Google.  

• Use a couple of keywords, combined with the word AND:
  • Havasupai and "informed consent"
• Don't put more than three keywords together in the same search 
• If you want to search a phrase, put quotation marks around it:
  • "Arizona State University"
  • "medical racism"
     

2) Recommended library databases:

• EBSCO Discovery Search: This is the yellow search box on the library webpage. It searches many (but not all) of our databases at once. If you're can't find useful information via the EBSCO Discovery Search, try searching the databases individually (see below)
  
   
• EBSCO Ebooks Academic (ebooks)
  Almost every topic has an ebook about it in this database (or a chapter from a book)
   
• JSTOR (scholarly journal articles)
  
  
• Academic Search Ultimate (magazine, newspapers, and some scholarly journal articles)
   
• Science Reference Center (articles on scientific topics, including medical based issues and bioethical issues)
   
• Gale eBooks (reference ebooks)
   
• The 8 ABC-Clio databases (search 8 databases at once)
  • Note: use quotation marks around phrases when searching for better results
  • ABC-Clio is the publisher name; each of the 8 databases within have their own name. Articles in these databases are original content for the database (born digital), and not published in print

You can limit Google searches to specific websites by using the search limiter: site:

View a video on how to complete a Google search with the site: limiter

For example, if you wanted to search for the Tuskegee syphilis experiment on The New York Times website, search for: Tuskegee syphilis site:www.nytimes.com

You can also use site: to limit results to websites that end in .gov or .edu

• Nazi experiments site:.gov  (don't put a space between the site: and .gov)
• Gene patenting site:.edu (no space between site: and .edu)

For .edu sites you still should evaluate what you've found to make sure it's authoritative, and not a student paper published on a university website, or a blog entry on a university website.

Start with authoritative sources and library resources (our print collection and/or our library databases) 

1)  Think of keywords 

• Consider synonyms, similar terms, or related terms, all which provide different ways to search
• Think of broader terms, or in some cases, more specific terms
   

2)  Use authoritative sources

• Library databases, found on the left hand side of our library website (see suggested library databases on the left)
• Books from our library: Search our online catalog
   

3) Please don’t start with Google 

• If you searched the library databases and still can't find information, think about the keywords you're using
• If you know you're using accurate keywords, you can contact Ms. Jewell for recommendations and/or assistance
   

4) If you use Google:

• Evaluate each website, making sure you have specific evidence why the website is reliable and authoritative
• Try an advanced search in Google using site: More information on how to use site: is at the bottom of this page 

You always need to cite the sources you used in your research, to give credit for any idea that is not yours. You might find it helpful to complete a MLA Template for each source you used.

The MLA page on our library website has works cited sample sheets, as well as a link to citation help from Purdue's Online Writing Lab (OWL).
 

When you are citing a source from a library database, many times the information was originally in print (book, reference source, periodicals).

When citing a print source, you usually provide the following information:

• author of the source
• the title of the source if you are citing an article from a reference book, or a collection of essays
• the title of the container (title of book, magazine, newspaper)
• any other contributors to the source (editors, translators, etc.)
• an edition (if there is one) or a volume/issue (if there is one)
• the publisher
• the date it was published (most recent date)
• page numbers (if the book is a reference book or a book of essays by different authors). Don't use page numbers if you're citing a book by a single author  
  
  

To cite a library database using the MLA Template:

• The original print information about the source (book, reference source, scholarly journal, magazine article) goes on the first two pages of the template
• Information about the library database (see below) goes on the third and fourth pages (where the information on the template is repeated).
• Two exceptions are Britannica Academic and all of the databases published by ABC-Clio.  Content from those databases were never in print (born digital), so the article and database information are on the first two pages.

For library databases, include the following information after you cite all the print information:

• the title of the container (database)
• the publisher of the source (database publisher)
• the date of the database (if given)
• the URL of the database (if required by your teacher).  Use a short version of the URL (typically up to the .com, .org, etc.).  Do not include http:// in the URL, and remove the hyperlink 

Type out each MLA Template entry in the exact order as on the template, complete with punctuation at the end of each line. 

Reminders: 

• The entire works cited list is double spaced, with one inch margins on each side
• The heading Works Cited is centered at the top of the works cited list
• The entries are in alphabetical order
• The first line of each citation is flush to the left, then each subsequent line of the citation is indented
• There is a header or heading in the works cited list, depending on teacher requirements

Below are four examples of a MLA Template and the labeled pages so you can see an example of sources cited using the MLA Template.  The last document gives a color-coded list of what goes into a citation, with examples.