MAS 365 - Latinos and Latinas: Emerging Issues
Finding Scholarly Resources in the UA Libraries
Your assignments for this class require that you use university-level resources to produce university-level work. With this in mind, you might want to review the UA Libraries' guide to distinguishing between popular and scholarly research. You may also wish to take the accompanying interactive tutorial. This tutorial is not required for class credit.
Many of the databases that you will use in this class have links to the full text of scholarly journal articles. Some databases, however, will have only a citation or an abstract. When the full text is not immediately available, check the library catalog for our holdings by doing a journal title search. The article may be available through another database, or in print.
Suggestions for Research
- Most databases will use the terms "Hispanic" and "Latino" interchangeably. It's always a good idea to look at the database thesaurus to determine which term the database prefers.
- Very few databases recognize "Chicano," "Chapin," "Boricua," and so forth as subject headings. Almost without exception, the databases listed below will use "hyphen-American" as indexing terms: "Mexican Americans," "Guatemalan-Americans," "Puerto Rican-Americans." Try using these terms in subject heading searches. You can also use "Chicano, "Boricua," et c., in keyword searches.
- Begin your search with the general databases listed below, then use the additional databases listed according to the subject of your research.
- Think beyond the psychology and sociology databases! Depending on your research, there may well be a more useful database than the psych/sociology indexes. If you are researching a particular behavior of non-Hispanic groups toward Hispanics (for example, how Anglo doctors treat Hispanic emergency room patients), you should probably research Anglos as well as Hispanics.
- Be creative when choosing the terms with which to frame your research. For example, if you're looking at Latinos and banking practices, it makes sense to use "banks," "financial institutions," etc., in addition to "banks."
- Unfortunately, a lot of research on Latinos gets mixed in with other ethnic groups. So you might want to broaden your search to "minority" in addition to "Hispanic" or "Latino" for optimal results.
- The UA Libraries Mexican-American Studies Subject Guide has lists of resources on Mexican-Americans in the United States, including print encyclopedias and dictionaries and links to electronic resources available on the web.
Major Databases
PsycINFO and PsycARTICLES
PsycINFO contains citations and abstracts to articles in journals, dissertations, and book chapters in all areas of psychology. It also includes the full text and indexing of all articles from PsycARTICLES. Use the thesaurus to find appropriate subject headings for research.
PsycARTICLES provides the full text of over 25,000 articles from 42 journals published by the American Psychological Association and allied organizations. All of these articles are indexed in PsycINFO (above). Subject searches are not possible in this database; try keyword searches for "Hispanic," "Latino" and/or the particular group within the Latino populace you're researching.
HAPI - Hispanic American Periodicals Index
Contains citations to articles on US-Hispanic and Latin American topics, mostly from scholarly articles. Articles may be in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, or Spanish from 500+ scholarly journals worldwide. HAPI links to some full text articles in other databases. These links may lead to the full text of the article, but not always.
HAPI has an option for limiting searches to Latinos in the United States. Click the "yes" button next to "Limit searches to articles about U.S. Hispanics only?"
Chicano Database
Identifies all types of material on Mexican-American topics. Records added since 1992 have expanded the scope to the broader Latino experience, including Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans, and Central American immigrants. The Chicano Database also includes the Spanish Speaking Mental Health Database, covering psychological, sociological, and educational literature. Citations only. DO NOT search for "Mexican Americans" or "Chicanos," as these will return too many documents.
Sociological Abstracts
Sociological Abstracts includes citations and abstracts to articles from an international collection of journal titles as well as abstracts to dissertations, and conference proceedings. Subject focus includes sociology, family studies, gerontology, sociolinguistics and related fields.
Ethnic NewsWatch
An interdisciplinary, bilingual (English and Spanish) and comprehensive full text database of newspapers, magazines and journals from ethnic, minority and native presses.
Selected Topics and Issues
For Articles and Resources on Latinos and Business
Examples: the buying power of Latinos; Latino-owned small businesses and entrepreneurship; Latino leadership in large corporations; Latinos and financial institutions
Business and Company Resource Center (UA access only)
ABI/Inform (UA access only)
EconLit (UA access only)
For Articles and Resources on Latinas and Gender Issues
Examples: Latinas and domestic violence; Latinas and the professions; lesbian Latinas
GenderWatch (UA access only)
For Articles on Immigration
Examples: breakdown of immigration by Latin American country of origin; statistics on the demographics of the Latino immigrant population; discussions of the politics of immigration
PAIS - Public Affairs Information Service
For Articles and Resources on Latinos and Education
Examples: retention and graduation rates of Latinos from high school and university; Latinos in medical school
ERIC (UA access only)
Education Abstracts Full Text (UA access only)
For Articles and Resources Related to Latinos and Health
Examples: Chicanos and heart disease; Chicanos and nutrition; Chicanos and diabetes
Health Reference Center (UA access only)
UA Libraries Mex-Am Studies Subject Guide: Chicano & Border Health Resources
Reference and Research Assistance
Citation style manual and tutorial
Here you'll find guides for citing information in the most commonly used formats: American Psychological Association style, Modern Languages Association style, and Chicago Manual of Style format.
Avoiding plagiarism
Plagiarism and academic dishonesty are serious offenses at the University of Arizona. If you are caught plagiarising or committing other acts prohibited by the UA Code of Conduct, the consequences can range from a failing grade for the assignment to a failing grade for the course to outright expulsion from the University. Consult the UA Libraries' page on avoiding plagiarism (linked above) for more information, and for tips on avoiding plagiarism.
Individual reference consultations
If you need help with the databases, or if you'd like a more in-depth introduction to these resources, please contact Laura Bender, or call (520) 621-4865. I strongly prefer that you e-mail me, but calling is fine, too. Don't forget to leave a phone number so I can call back!
I'm available for individual tutorials and reference consultations. E-mail or call, and we'll set up a mutually convenient time for us to meet in my office so we can discuss your research and so I can demo the databases.
Please don't drop in to my office. My work takes me all over the library, and sometimes to other parts of campus. If you just stop by, I may not be there, or I may be with someone else and unable to assist you right away. Make an appointment first, and you'll be sure to have my undivided attention.
Web page created by Olivia Olivares, Social Science Team
Web page created on August 31, 2005
For Assistance, Contact: Gaby Lopez