NASEP Research Guide

Databases are commercial products that bundle a variety of resources into a single, easily searchable interface. Database contents are primarily articles from scholarly journals, but include popular magazine and newspaper articles, and audio visual materials as well.

The state of Arizona provides free access to Arizona residents to several that may be used in STEM research. You will access these databases by entering your zip code.

• Academic OneFile Gale’s premier periodical resource, Academic OneFile, provides millions of articles from over 17,000 scholarly journals and other authoritative sources—including thousands of podcasts and transcripts from NPR and CNN as well as videos from BBC Worldwide Learning.
   
• General OneFile This Gale general interest database includes reference, newspaper, and audio content that complements the resource's robust collection of magazines and journals.
   
• Science in Context Provides contextual information on hundreds of today's most significant science topics, and includes millions of full-text articles that includes national and global publications as well as 200+ experiments, projects, and top reference content.

National Science Digital Library: The NDSL provides high quality online educational resources for learning, with current emphasis on the STEM disciplines. After entering your search terms, you can select your grade level for appropriate content.

Apart from the library you may have at your school, you probably have a public library in the county where you live. Most of these public libraries have databases for you to use. If you don't yet have a library card, get one! Not only will you have access to materials to help you academically, but there is a lot of material to enjoy "for fun". There are so many materials and services you may access using your library card. Teens in Pima County (see Pima County Public Library) can get homework help, for example!

If you are near the University of Arizona Library, or another large post-secondary school (for example, NAU or ASU) you can go to the library there to access its databases on one of their public computers.

Open Access

(or OA) materials are available to use without the barrier of a pay wall.

BASE: Bielefeld Academic

BASE is one of the world's most voluminous search engines especially for academic web resources. BASE provides more than 240 million documents from more than 8,000 content providers. You can access the full texts of about 60% of the indexed documents for free (OA).