Research Guides: Writing 60: Argument &amp; Research: Explore Topics

Connect from off campus

Researching from home? Remote access to the UC Irvine Libraries' licensed online resources is available to current UC Irvine students, faculty & staff. Visit our Connect from Off-Campus page for more information!

Exploring your topic

In addition to basic web searching (e.g. Google, Wikipedia) to gain background information, we recommend exploring topics in some of these databases:

Opposing Viewpoints
Collection of topic overviews, viewpoints, full-text news and academic journal articles, primary sources, and other multimodal resources such as statistics, images, media files, etc. Watch a tutorial on searching this database.
Global Issues In Context
Global Issues in Context focuses on broad issues, such as war, genocide, terrorism, human rights, poverty, famine, globalization, world trade, nuclear proliferation, and global warming, as well as more specific events and topics in the news that are related to these broader issues.
CQ Researcher
CQ Press Library is the place to search or browse resources on American government, current affairs, history, politics, public policy, and data analysis for the social sciences. Each report analyzes a current social, political, and/or economic issue. Includes a pro/con section which presents different perspectives on the same topic. Watch a tutorial on searching this database.
Gale Ebooks
Hundreds of encyclopedias and books that give overviews to specific topics.
SAGE eReference
Database of full text ebooks and reference books published by SAGE covering the social sciences and education, including such areas as African American Studies, Aged & Gerontology, Anthropology, Communication and Media Studies, Criminology and Criminal Justice, Economics, Education, Gender & Sexuality Studies, History, Politics, Psychology, Social Issues, Social Work & Social Policy, and Sociology.