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Campbell Library

Free Research Resources for Rowan Graduates

This guide will help you understand what scholarly research resources you will have available to you after graduating from Rowan University.

Familiar Databases

Some databases that you may have used over the years here at Rowan offer free versions of the popular databases they sell to libraries. This version, however, will usually have less information or less full-text information (i.e. it will only enable you to find the citation you need. It might not provide a PDF or the full text) than the version you're used to using.

Databases

  • ERIC: Articles and reports on all aspects of education.
  • Google Scholar: Articles, theses, books, reports, and case laws from a variety of disciplines. The free version of Google Scholar offers access to abstracts and citations, and sometimes full-text.
  • JSTOR: Archive of full-text scholarly journal articles in a broad range of academic disciplines.  JSTOR offers a free version of their database, for example. If you'd like more in-depth access, you can pay a yearly or monthly fee.
  • PolicyMap: With easy-to-use menus, PolicyMap is a “GIS tool for non-GIS experts” for those who need to visualize large amounts of data quickly and easily, often down to the census tract or block group level. It is used in the social sciences, urban studies and regional planning, real estate and housing analysis, community and economic development, public administration and policy, public health, political science, education, environmental studies, business and finance, economics, statistics and geography, among other areas. Included in the tool is access to PolicyMap’s extensive data collection, with 15,000+ indicators used to understand communities, organized into general categories including demographics, income and spending, housing, lending activity, quality of life, economy, education, health, federal guidelines, and other analysis. In addition, students and faculty can easily upload and incorporate their data into and leverage it against the thousands of indicators already available in PolicyMap.
  • PubMed: Comprehensive index to the Biomedical literature. PubMed comprises more than 27 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites.

The State of New Jersey also offers free access to many other databases, such as:

  • Academic Search Premier
  • Business Source Elite
  • Legal Information Reference Center
  • Literary Reference Center
  • Regional Business News
  • Small Business Reference Center
  • Teacher Reference Center

Reference Managers

Reference Managers allow organizing of citations and generate bibliographies according to output style desired.