By Robert LeBlanc

Gale’s Opposing Viewpoints Resources in Context is a great place to start your ethical research. The Opposing Viewpoints database provides a complete overview of both sides of numerous ethical issues through viewpoint articles, topic overviews, statistics, primary documents, web site links, geographic maps, and full-text magazine and newspaper articles.

The comprehensive search box allows users to search for specific resource types or conduct a keyword search on a wide variety of current social issues. Additionally, users can browse issues which are divided into broad subcategories, such as Law and Politics, Energy and Environmentalism or Health and Medicine, each featuring a long list of discipline-specific topics.

Each topic’s subject page features article links, website lists and “viewpoints,” which are themselves comprehensive, well-referenced resources written by authorities in their field. Additional information about each ethical topic can be cross-referenced in the comprehensive Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics.

The biggest strength of Gale’s Opposing Viewpoints is context: nearly every ethical topic covered in the database is placed in a modern, current context allowing users to integrate their own understanding and experience with the issues they are researching. Current issues such as Fracking, Biofuels and the Arab Spring Movement are all covered in depth and include fresh commentary on these new social controversies. Whether you already have a topic in mind or need a fresh new idea for an academic project, Opposing Viewpoints in Context is a great place to start your ethics paper research.

To navigate to the Opposing Viewpoints in Context database, go to the Databases A-Z link located in the lower left corner of the Falvey Memorial Library homepage, click databases beginning with “O”, and select the Opposing Viewpoints link.

More ethics-related resources can be found at the library’s Ethics Subject Guide (located under the “Guides” tab at the top of the library homepage). If you would like to know more about this resource contact, Rob LeBlanc, First Year Experience and Ethics Liaison Librarian at robert.leblanc@villanova.edu or 610-51 9-7778.