Search Engines - Community of Scholars
The Community of Scholarsis a web site operated by a not-for-profit association.  Because Washington University subscribes to this database, it can be used free of charge by the Washington University community without any usernames or passwords. The Community of Scholars database contains many funding opportunities for those in the social sciences.  It has several key features that may be of interest to graduate students looking for research funding. 

Keyword search. The association actively locates notices for grant awards in the sciences.  This list of currently available sources can be invoked with key words and provides results similar to IRIS. 

Resume. Many governmental agencies require a standardized resume form (PHS-89) to be filled out when submitting a grant. Your personal information can be entered into the Community of Scholars site. Pressing one button produces an official version of this form all filled out. This feature is particularly useful since any forms needed in the future can be produced by only having to add any new information rather than supplying all of the information again. 

Patent Search. The web site contains access to all US patents.  This is useful for preparing any grant application that may involve patentable ideas. 
 

Related Sites
How to Apply for an NIH Award
The National Research Service Award is a major source of funding for postdocs in biomedical sciences. 

Search Tips for Community of Scholars:

  1. Take some time when using the "Keyword Broswer" to explore the various sub directories of each category.  This is a good way to limit your search.

    2.  
  2. Be sure to keep track of which keywords you are using because they are not listed on the "Results" screen.

Example:

Once more I will look for a dissertation fellowship that deals with the economics of Health Insurance.  Just like with the other search engines I will begin by looking for the number of hits I get by searching for economics dissertation fellowships in general. 

Search #1:

  1. By clicking on the Community of Scholars link on the top of this page I am sent to the Community of Scholars web site. 
  2. From the menu of choices I am now presented with I will choose "Main Search" to bring up the "Main Search" screen. 
  3. On the "Main Search" screen I will click on the button marked "Browse" under "Keywords". 
  4. Notice that this pulls up a separate window, the "Keyword Browser", that  contains the list of Keywords. 
  5. On the "Keyword Browser" screen I will click on the plus sign next to "Behavioral or Social Sciences" to view the subcatagories of this folder. 
  6. Next I will click on "Economics" and click on "OK" to add "Economics" to my search. 
  7. Back on the "Main Search" screen I see "Economics" pop up in the "Keywords" box. 
  8. Under "Funding Type" I will highlight "Dissertation or Thesis" and then click on the button at the bottom marked "Do the Search". 
  9. The "Results" screen shows 27 results for "Economics" and "Dissertation or Thesis". 

This is much less than using IRIS, but it is easy to look through only 31 records.  As I have done with the other search engines now I will try a search using the keyword "Health Care Economics". 

Search #2:

  1. From the "Results" screen I will click on the back arrow on my browser to get back to the "Main Search" screen. 
  2. On the "Main Search" screen I will click on the button marked "Clear all Fields" to begin a new search. 
  3. Now on the "Main Search" screen I will click on the button marked "Browse" under "Keywords". 
  4. Again this pulls up the "Keyword Browser" screen. 
  5. On the "Keyword Browser" screen I will click on the plus sign next to "Behavioral or Social Sciences" to view the subcatagories of this folder. 
  6. Next I will click on the plus sign next to  "Economics" to view the subcatagories. 
  7. I will click on "Health Care Economics" and click on "OK" to add "Health Care Economics" to my search. 
  8. Back on the "Main Search" screen I see "Health Care Economics" pop up in the "Keywords" box. 
  9. Under "Funding Type" I will highlight "Dissertation or Thesis" and then click on the button at the bottom marked "Do the Search". 
  10. The "Results" screen shows 0 results for "Health Care Economics" and "Dissertation or Thesis". 

So far I have not found any of the dissertation fellowships mentioned under the other search engines.  Perhaps it is because the Community of Scholars search engine focuses more on the natural sciences.  I will try one more search using "Health Care Financing" to see if I can find anything. 

Search #3:

  1. From the "Results" screen I will click on the back arrow on my browser to get back to the "Main Search" screen.
  2. On the "Main Search" screen I will click on the button marked "Clear all Fields" to begin a new search.
  3. Now on the "Main Search" screen I will click on the button marked "Browse" under "Keywords". 
  4. Again this pulls up the "Keyword Browser" screen. 
  5. On the "Keyword Browser" screen I will click on the plus sign next to "Health and Safety, Medical Sciences, Biomedical" to view the subcatagories of this folder. 
  6. Next I will click on the plus sign next to  "Health Care" to view the subcatagories.
  7. I will click on "Health Care Financing" and click on "OK" to add "Health Care Financing" to my search.
  8. Back on the "Main Search" screen I see "Health Care Financing" pop up in the "Keywords" box. 
  9. Under "Funding Type" I will highlight "Dissertation or Thesis" and then click on the button at the bottom marked "Do the Search". 
  10. The "Results" screen shows 2 results for "Health Care Financing" and "Dissertation or Thesis". 

Again we find the AHCPR dissertation fellowship.  It took much more searching to find it using the Community of Scholars search engine than some of the others. 

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