CJC-103: Policing in a Democratic Society: Home

Visit the library's website here: https://library.salve.edu/

This guide will help you find sources for your position paper.

This assignment requires 2 news sources, one from The Wall Street Journal, one from The New York Times, and 2 sources from think tanks or government sources. You can search the Harvard Think Tank Search to find reports from think tanks and Google Advanced Search for government sources. 

Search Strategies for this paper

Start by looking for a broad overview of your topic. Ideally you'll find a long form, credible report that gives a broad outline of the issues. You may find an analysis article in a news source, or it might be more likely to find something in a think tank or a government source. 

Try a Harvard Think Tank search to look across all think tanks. If this doesn't work, try specific non-partisan think tanks such as Rand Corporation, Pew Research Center, Congressional Research Service, or government sources by doing a Google advanced search in the .gov domain.

Google Advanced Search allows you to search within certain domains, such as .gov for US government websites, .us, often used for state-level domains, or .mil for US military information. 

When you try your search terms, such as "bail reform" or "police in schools"  you might not find news articles that have your terms in the title. That's okay-- there are a few steps to thorough searching.

Use the Find function for efficiency: Stories in the results might relate to your topic even if they don't have your search words in the title. You can work your way down the result list, opening each article and typing CTRL F or on a Mac, Command F. Type a word from your search like "bail" or "officer" in the search function that comes up and the browser will highlight instances of your search words. 

Try synonyms for your search words: Another way people refer to  "police in schools" is "school resource officer." Or instead of "prisons pandemic," you can try "prisons COVID" or "prisons coronavirus" or even instead of prisons, "jails" even though this isn't technically correct. 

Evaluating your sources

First think about what type of news source you're looking at. Is the article you found in The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal  a hard news story, analysis, or opinion/commentary? If it is hard news, did the reporter ask for perspectives from people on different sides of the issue, who are experts qualified to speak on the topic?

If you found a think tank source, does it have a bias? If it does have a bias, try a think tank on the other side of the spectrum, as well as a non-partisan or centrist think tank. You can check the chart below for some examples of think tanks and their commonly understood ideological orientation. If you'd like to search a specific think tank, try Googling your topic and the think tank's name, such as "bail reform Brookings Institution."  

If you identified bias in the story, did you find another story that explores the issue from another angle so you have a better idea of what people on different sides of the issue think?

You can use the CRAAP test to make sure your sources are current, relevant, authoritative, accurate, and that you understand their purpose and whether they are biased. 

The Harvard Think Tank Search searches only the websites of Think Tanks. These reports will have high quality information but may be biased because the think tanks have policy agendas that they would like to advance.

A credible news source should abide by the Society of Professional Journalists' Code of Ethics.

You should also keep an eye out for what type of article you're reading on a news site. Credible news organizations usually clearly display when you're looking at an editorial or opinion piece, which are usually very biased and seek to convince the reader to take a side on an issue. Straight  news stories should not show outward bias in reporting language, but even credible news organizations may betray an ideological bent through what information editors and journalists choose to omit, include, and highlight on their front pages.  

Review the Society of Professional Journalists' Code of Ethics below. If a news source does not seem to be abiding by this code in its straight news reporting, it is likely to be less credible. 

4. Google Advanced Search allows you to search within certain domains, such as .gov for US government websites, .us, often used for state-level domains, or .mil for US military information. 

Need research assistance?
Click to Meet with a Librarian

Contact the library:
Call us at 401-341-2289
Email us at salvelibrarian@salve.edu
Chat with us from any library web page
Visit us at the information desk
Find us in the staff directory