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Social Ecology Undergraduate Honors Research - SE 190A - 2025-2026


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Finding Information

Finding Books 

  • University of California Library Search - catalog for all holdings across all 10 UC campuses - use the left sidebar for all refinements by Resource Type, Format, date restrictions, etc; Can also use Advanced Search or restrict to UCI Catalog; will retrieve at item record level - title, author, editor of book; may include table of contents
  • There are also many collections of eBooks issued by different publishers and aggregators - some are listed on our eBooks guide

Finding Journal Articles

  • General Databases are great places to start - there are several recommended multidisciplinary databases that cover a range of subject areas and include a large percentage of online full text content - use the Find @ UC icon to determine access, if a PDF or HTML link or button is not noted.  
  • Use the Subject Guides to direct you to topical resources and specialized databases
  • A-Z List of Database - list of all databases at UC Irvine

Finding other scholarly content

  • SSRN Library (Social Sciences Research Network - will retrieve preprints - have not gone through peer review yet)

  • Google Scholar

Finding Government Information 

The jurisdiction is critical here - we divide our resources up by Local for Orange County and its municipalities; California, US Federal (all branches of government and its agencies) and International for foreign countries, regions, and NGOs.  Increasingly the current and most recent information is available in online or digital formats.  Consult UCLS  and the Research/Subject  Guides for starters and additional direction.

Finding Primary Resources 

There are many specific databases that contain primary resource content that may range from manuscripts, photographs, interviews, images, etc.  many secondary sources will cite primary resources that are available to you. Consult with a reference librarian for specific direction.

Finding Images 

Many image databases exist - some are general such as Google Images and others are specific to content areas both from open access sources & public domain or from specialized content providers, where permissions and copyright may be an issue.  Again, consulting with a reference librarian will be worthwhile.  There is also a Subject Guide for Images.

Conducting Literature Reviews 

There are different methods on how to conduct a literature review - some are influenced by subject or discipline, and some by the resources themselves and the publishing traditions already in place.  There are ways to qualify your search in order to obtain Review Articles in many databases. There is also a database that contains Annual Reviews - invited papers to summarize the research and knowledge that has been compiled on a certain topic.

  • Annual Reviews - there are many different thematic titles and each year has a different set of topical papers - recommend the Annual Review of Social Sciences, Annual Review of Psychology, etc.

Other Library Resources

Depending on the research strategies you will employ and the process by which you will capture data, record and manage it, and the final product you envision, you may consider the following resources: