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Master in Community Development Policy and Practice (MCD, MACDPP)

Relevant Databases

Depending on your specific topic, one of these specialized databases may be helpful. For more online resources in areas such as the environment, education, and health, check out the complete Database List.

Most of these databases focus on academic articles, but some include other types of sources such as book chapters, government reports, and conference proceedings.

Initial Search Options

Start here!

The UNH Library search box provides one-stop searching for books and e-books; articles in newspapers, journals, and magazines; and streaming video and audio - it searches multiple databases at once.

To get relevant results, click on Advanced Search and use the Ways to Search with Keywords, Limiting Your Search Results, and Search Tips & Tricks below to research like a pro!

  • If you're not sure which search terms to use, try Google Scholar to start - its natural language searching may bring back articles using terms you never thought of!

Google Scholar (GS) is useful for specific kinds of searching

  • When you don't know the right terms to search, GS uses natural language searching which can help you fish around for useful search terms. 
  • When you find one great article, you can use GS - type in the article title, then in the listing click "cited by" to see who has cited that article in their more recent one.
  • When you want to look for unpublished articles or other grey literature.

Please note: you can search it like and advanced search in a database, using AND, OR, or NOT to search.

Use GS settings to choose UNH Library!

  • That will show you what you have access to via UNH Library in the right column.

Reading a Social Science Article

Remember - a journal article is not a mystery novel! These steps will help you read it faster and understand it better.

  1. Read the abstract - is the article on topic and worth reading? If yes, then...
  2. Read the introduction - what are they researching?
  3. Read the conclusion and/or discussion - what did they find out?
  4. Go back and look through the headings - how did they find it out?
  5. THEN read the article.

Alerts & Current Awareness Services

Alerts and RSS feeds can help you stay current in your field or with a topic of interest with only a little time and effort on your part. These services are usually available from journal publishers and databases and help you monitor recent publications related to your research interests.

For more detail on various types of alerts provided by database and journal publishers, please view the guides below that were developed by librarians at other institutions. Where these guides discuss or link to specific databases or services, please use the UNH Databases listings to connect to the UNH subscription to reach the correct authentication path.