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Database Help:
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The CQ Researcher explores a single "hot" issue in the news in depth each week. Topics range from social and teen issues to environment, health, education and science and technology. There are 44 reports produced each year including four expanded reports.
Every CQ Researcher contains the same elements. Each provides an overview of the topic, then poses several key questions, or "issue questions." The answers to these questions are never conclusive because the issues are so controversial. Instead, the answers highlight the range of opinions among experts. Each report is written by an experienced journalist and features comments from experts, lawmakers and citizens on all sides of every issue. To achieve a well-rounded perspective, each selection also incorporates the voices of participants in the thick of the policy process: lobby organizations, nonprofits, think tanks, academia and government officials. Numerous charts, graphs and sidebar articles -- plus a pro-con feature (giving the views of two experts providing opposing answers to a relevant question), a chronology of key events, lengthy annotated bibliographies that explain the usefulness of each source, and a list of contacts -- round out each report. It gives the reader a broad overview of the subject, including the historical background ( which provides a history of the issue, including important government actions and court decisions), and a discussion of the current controversies and initiatives (a snapshot of the issue at the time of publication and a sense of what might happen in the near future).
CQ Researcher is available through the Library Databases web page or computer terminals in the Library Reference Department.
Keyword searching provides the most comprehensive way of searching the database. Type in word(s) or phrase(s), then click on search. Keyword searches allow Boolean operators ("and", "or", "not"; the database default is "or") and truncation (the truncation symbol is "*").
When searching for phrases (e.g. "presidential election"), truncating may only be used with the last word in the phrase.
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Diane Downing
Head of Reference
Gee Library, Texas A&M University - Commerce
PO Box 3011, Commerce, TX 75429
phone: (903) 886-5719
email: diane_downing@tamu-commerce.edu
Last updated June 2002.