Researchers sometimes use newspaper content to address both qualitative and quantitative research questions. The table below should help you decide which newspaper platform may work for your research project.
If you need to search a specific newspaper that is only covered in one database, you'll need to go that route. But if your research question isn't specific to a particular title you may want to consider:
Newspaper Platforms and Databases
|
|
Lexis Nexis / Nexis Uni |
Access World News |
Chronicling America |
EBSCO / Articles Plus |
ProQuest / US Newsstream |
Access Newspaper Archive |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Library licensed |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Download article metadata in spreadsheet |
Yes |
No |
No |
Yes |
No |
|
|
Download full text in bulk |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
No |
Yes |
No |
|
Search all words |
Use AND between words Use " " for exact order |
Use AND between words Use " " for exact order |
Use AND between words Use " " for exact order Search "...with all of the words" in Advanced Search |
Use AND between words Use " " for exact order |
Use AND between words Use " " for exact order |
Use "With All of the Words" in Advanced Search Use "With the Exact Phrase" in Advances Search for exact order |
|
Search related words or synonyms |
Use OR between words |
Use OR between words |
Use OR between words Search "...with any of the words" in Advanced Search |
Use OR between words |
Use OR between words |
Use "With At Least One of These Words" in Advanced Search |
|
Exclude words from search |
and not |
Use NOT between words |
Not available |
Use NOT between words |
Use NOT between words |
Use "Without the Word(s)" in Advanced Search |
|
Wildcard - within word |
? |
? |
Not available |
? |
? |
Not available |
|
Truncation - end of word |
! or * |
* |
Not available |
* |
* |
Not available |
|
Proximity searching Replace n with the relevant number for your search |
/n |
NEARn |
Use "...with the words" in Advanced search (5, 10, 50 or 100 words) |
Nn |
NEAR/n or N/n |
Not available |
|
Proximity searching - words appearing in order Replace n with the relevant number for your search |
pre/n |
ADJn |
Not available |
Wn |
PRE/n or P/n |
Not available |
Resources that are library-licensed are only available to those with a current Ohio University affiliation. Accessing the resources will require the use of your OHIO ID and password. If you are not currently affiliated with the university, there is a set of computers on the 2nd floor available for guest access to our library licensed resources. You may also want to reach out to your public library for access. Many now subscribe to research databases or can help you get connected to resources licensed for public libraries across the state.
Some newspaper databases let you download article metadata (author, article title, publication, date, etc) as a spreadsheet for analysis.
This tells you whether the database will let you download the full text of articles in bulk, usually as a PDF or Word file.
When you want to search for articles that include all of a set of terms. Example: water AND safety should show you articles that include both search terms. Most databases also let you use quotation marks to search for words in a specific order. Example: "drinking water" AND safety will only include articles that have the phrase drinking water in addition to the word safety.
If there are multiple words that are tied to a concept in your search, you can use OR between words to tell the database that your results can include any of those words. Example: water AND safety AND (Ohio OR West Virginia) will show you articles including water, safety, and either West Virginia or Ohio (or both)
If you find that there are words you need to tell the database to ignore, most databases will have some soft of exclusion option using NOT. Example: water AND safety NOT lead will show you articles mentioning water and safety, but ignore those with the word lead.
Wildcards and trunctation symmbols let you search for words that have similar constructtions. Example: water and safe* should show you articles with water and safe, safer, and safety. Wildcards are usually used within a word. Example: wom?n will search for articles with women or woman.
Proximity searching gives you the ability to find words that near each other. The specific strategy for this varies more than most other search tools (see the table above for common platforms). Example: water /4 (Ohio or West Virginia) AND safety returns articles where water appears within 4 words of Ohio or West Virginia and the word safety is also included (in Lexis Nexis/Nexis Uni). You can sometimes indicate that words should appear in a particular order by using a different operator. Example (Ohio or West Virginia) pre/4 water AND safety indicates that water must cappear within 4 words after Ohio or West Virginia.