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Phi Theta Kappa Honors in Action

A research guide for the Honors in Action project completed by members of Phi Theta Kappa.

(2020-2021)

Research question: How does the high cost of childcare prohibit parents from pursuing an education or career? What can be done to lessen the burden?

(Based on Honors Study Topic To the Seventh Generation: Inheritance and Legacy)

To target government websites (for statistics or government-funded studies), add site:.gov to your Google search.
Try the Directory of Open Access Journals for peer-reviewed articles freely available online: https://doaj.org/
If RVCC does not have access to full text of a needed article, use Interlibrary Loan to get it. Ask a librarian if you need help.
Search the Internet, use Wikipedia, or utilize one of the library's Research Starter databases to learn more about your topic and look for synonyms and related terms to use in your searches.
Other keywords to try/combine to create complex searches (presented in alphabetical order, not ranked by usefulness):

"After school"	"Government funded"
Babysitter	Income
Caretaker	Nanny
"Child care"	Preschool
Childcare	Pre-kindergarten
Cost	Price
"Day care"	"Socioeconomic status"
Daycare	Subsidized
"Early childhood education"	Wealth
Fee	"Working parents"

Recommended databases:

(Some of these may provide scholarly articles while others offer reference articles or popular sources. If you are not sure what kind of source you found, please ask a librarian!)

Education Database
This is a ProQuest database which includes over 1,000 full-text journals and 18,000 dissertations, supporting research on the theory and practice of education.

This database covers not only the literature on primary, secondary, and higher education but also special education, home schooling, early childhood education, and adult education. Approximately 75% of the publications included in this database are scholarly journals. The majority of the content spans from 1980-present, but there are earlier documents and articles included. Use this database in conjunction with ERIC for comprehensive education research and full-text access to some articles only cited in ERIC.
Educators Reference Complete
This Gale database covers multiple levels of education from preschool to college and includes many educational specialties such as bilingual studies, health, technology and testing.

This resource also includes information on issues related to administration, funding and policy in education. It contains articles from journals and magazines and reports from the U.S. Department of Education and it provides full-text results for many of the articles cited in ERIC. This is a great resource for students studying any level of education.
ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center)
ERIC (Education Resources Information Center) is an authoritative database of indexed and full-text education literature and resources supported by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement and is administered by the U.S. National Library of Education (NLE).

It contains more than 1.6 million records and links to hundreds of thousands of full-text documents including journal articles (most of which are scholarly), books, conference papers, curriculum guides, policy papers and more. Through the EBSCO interface, it provides an education-specific thesaurus that includes controlled vocabulary.
Opposing Viewpoints in Context
This Gale database provides information covering today's hottest social issues. It contains pro/con viewpoints, magazine & newspaper articles, scholarly journal articles, reference articles, and more.

This Gale resource provides more than 20,100 pro/con viewpoints covering today’s hottest social issues and more than 19,200 reference articles, including topic overviews, charts and graphs, and statistical information. It contains over 300 profiles of federal agencies and special-interest groups and offers a dedicated portal focused on the annual debate topic determined by the National Speech and Debate Association. It provides access to full-text newspapers and periodicals from multiple perspectives, including National Review, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Commentary, and CNN Wire. This is a great resource for background research on topics to gain different perspectives.
RVOneSearch
RVOneSearch provides access to most of the information contained in many of the library's databases plus the RVCC library catalog.

It is a great place to begin your research with select key words to obtain a list of articles available throughout multiple databases as well as books, ebooks and websites accessible through RVCC’s library. Many limiters are available to modify your search such as full-text only, peer reviewed (scholarly), specific date ranges, or a specific database or source type.
ScienceDirect
This Elsevier database provides mostly full-text access to over 14 million scientific, technical and health publications from over 3,800 journals and more than 35,000 books.

Some articles have citation and abstract information only. This is a good source for scholarly articles in nursing, psychology and the sciences.
SocIndex
This EBSCO database provides comprehensive coverage of sociology, encompassing all sub-disciplines and closely related areas of study.

It features millions of records with subject headings from a sociological thesaurus. It provides mostly full-text access to scholarly journals, as well as indexing for books, monographs, conference papers and other non-periodical materials. It also provides over 25,000 author profiles on the most prolific, most cited and most frequently searched for authors in the database.

Last Updated: Aug 7, 2025 3:51 PM
URL: https://library.raritanval.edu/ptk
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