Your topic will often determine the best type of sources. For some, you may need to depend on websites and interviews. Other topics will be reported on in the news media. Still others will have scholarly journal articles or data sets that can be used.
- Working on a WCU campus issue/policy? Find the web pages of the department(s) who oversee that issue. The current policies should be stated and you may be able to identify someone to interview. Also consider searching the Quad (student newspaper) to see if the issue has been reported on. For articles about the issue on other campuses try Access World News Live, the Chronicle of Higher Education, or Inside Higher Ed.
- For a borough/local/regional issue/policy, local websites and officials will again be valuable sources. Also consider searching the Daily Local's website or our Philadelphia Inquirer database for news articles. You may also be able to find local data on some topics through our Policy Map database.
- For topics related to the business/corporate world, your best bet is to use Business Source Premier to find scholarly and magazine articles from business-specific journals and magazines. You might also want to use National Newspapers to look for news articles from major newspapers.
- If you are looking at a national or global issue, you will probably find a mix of scholarly and news articles. Our Library Search tool is a great place to look for sources.
