You can search for newspaper articles to see how materials are discussed to broad audiences. I highly recommend using Access World News, which has our widest range of full text newspaper articles. It also contains powerful filtering abilities, including limiting results all the way down to local city newspapers.
Trade publications are non-scholarly sources written by practitioners to keep up with news in their field. Locating these types of articles can be tricky, but here are some engineering-related databases that can be helpful:
You can use topic exploration databases to get a "big picture" look at what issues are affecting the world through a diversity of viewpoints. Considering the larger implications of scientific work can help with developing a research question, discussing broader implications in research proposals, and avoiding bias from limited perspectives.
|
