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EDE: Issues & Controversies

Issues & Controversies

Issues & Controversies: This link opens in a new window
To help students, researchers, and readers understand the critical issues we face today, Issues & Controversies explores and analyzes hundreds of hot topics in politics, business, government, crime, law, energy, education, health, family, science, foreign policy, race, rights, society, and culture. Updated weekly, Issues & Controversies offers in-depth articles designed to inspire thought-provoking debates and research papers.

  • When conducting research using Issues and Controversies, double check with your professor to see if they will allow you to cite information from this database in your paper/works cited.

Issues & Controversies

The following is an overview of the first few steps in the research process using Issues & Controversies database. For a fuller description, with images of the searching process, click through the tabs above. 

  1. Accessing Issues & Controversies: To find articles using our library databases, go to the library homepage, and use the link for "Articles/Databases." Click on the I in the alphabetical list. Scroll down to Issues & Controversies, and click the link to open the database.

  2. Browsing Subjects: If you have not yet fully decided on a topic, you can use the "All Issues A to Z" menu option to look at a full list of the topics included in this database. You can also dive straight into your research by using the search box. If you need help narrowing your topic from a larger idea, make use the of the subject options at the bottom of the page. 

  3. Choosing Your Topic: Browse through the sub-topics for a subject you are interested in. If you need more info, check out the topic overview to preview the supporting and opposing arguments involved in the concept.

  4. Gathering Background Info: To gather more background information on a topic, click into the article and read through the overview. The full topic page will provide a more detailed explanation of the argument, including the supporting and opposing sides, and a history of the concepts involved. 

  5. Accessing Your Articles Later On: Once you find an article that you want to use, there are several tools available to keep track of the resource. Use the tools underneath the title to access the permalink for this webpage. Copying the URL at the top of the page will not work after your initial search session. 

*Citing Your Work: The database can provide a machine generated citation, but oftentimes these contain errors in content and formatting. Please check those citations against our Writing & Citing Guide.

The Issues & Controversies database is a great place to start the research process. It has a large list of issues that can help you choose your topic and start gathering background information. 

To access Issues & Controversies, go to the full A-Z list of our library databases by clicking Articles/Databases on the library homepage.

Click on the I in the alphabetical list. Scroll down to Issues & Controversies, and click the link to open the database.

*Remember if you are searching for materials off-campus, you will need to sign in using your myBRCC username and password. For more information on that process check out our off-campus guide!

There are several ways to interact with the database to dive into choosing a topic. 

You can click on "All Issues A to Z" to look through the full list of topics. There are over 700 topics to choose from. If this is too overwhelming, you can scroll to the bottom of the homepage to see "All Issues by Subject," which organizes topics into larger subject areas. If you are interested in doing research on a topic that is popular in the news, or in culture at-large, there are also categories available for those topics.

You can also filter your results after clicking into "All Issues A to Z" by using the menu on the right.

Once you choose a topic from the list, there will be a handful of sub-topics that break-down the larger category. For the example shown below, within the larger concept of "video games," there are sub-topics for violent video games, online education, gamergate, young adult non-fiction, comic books, and other media violence. 

The sub-topic preview provides an introduction to the supporting and opposing viewpoints involved in the argument presented. 

Once you decide on the subject you want to write on, check out the full topic page to read a more detailed explanation of the argument, including the supporting and opposing sides, and a history of the concepts involved. In the research process, this is considered step 2: gathering background info. 

*research tip* Reading this summary can help you develop keywords and search terms to use in other library databases. Let Issues & Controversies do some of the work for you!

Do not use the URL at the top of the browser window! This is a temporary URL that will break in a short time. Instead, use the tools underneath the title to access the permalink for this webpage.

To access the permalink, click on the Share button. This will bring up your sharing options. You can use the Copy Link option to grab the URL to post into another document, or Email the article to yourself.

 You can also grab the citation information by using the Cite button -- just make sure that you are looking at the correct citation style (APA, MLA, Chicago), and that you check the citation against our writing and citing guide. These citations are machine generated and usually contain errors.