Step 1: Browse Current Journals
Find the journals where the scholars engaged in your field publish. You can often see them reacting to and replying to each other.
-
Journals ListSearch all of the library's subscriptions to journals, magazines, and newspapers.
-
Browzine(Searches through citation information)
An online tool that allows you to browse, read, and stay current with scholarly journals. Also available as an app for iOS, Android, and Kindle Fire devices. -
Arts & Humanities Citation Index(Searches through citations, subject indexing, and abstracts)
Available through the Web of Knowledge, this tool allows cited reference searching for literature from 1975 - current.
Note: To do cited reference searching, click on "cited reference search," fill in an author's last name and publication date, figure out which of the resulting list of citations match the work you're looking for, and then "finish search" to see who has cited that work.
Step 2: What do other people think?
You can use Book Reviews to get clues about the state of a field on a given topic.
HINT: add the key words "review" or "review article" to your search.
-
Cambridge Histories Online(Searches through citations and the full text)
An authoritative full text collection of the history of scholarship in several different academic subjects. Includes over 260 volumes published since 1960 by Cambridge University Press. -
Annual Reviews(Searches through citations, subject indexing, and abstracts)
Articles in this collection offer comprehensive summaries of the state of research on topics from many disciplines in the sciences and social sciences. Covers 1997 - current. -
ProQuest Dissertations and Theses GlobalDissertations and theses, while not as heavily vetted as books, are a good way to see new trends in the field. Most documents published since 1997 also include the full text. Covers 1861 - current.
-
Journal: Choice Reviews byCall Number: online; Carleton Periodicals Z1035 .C5Availability and more information from Catalyst...
Librarians use Choice Reviews to keep up on scholarship in the field and help us buy books for the collection.
Step 3: Find similar scholarship
- Look up a known item in Catalyst, do SUBJECT SEARCH
- Look up a known item in Catalyst, browse the stacks by CALL NUMBER
- Use a known item, read FOOTNOTES and BIBLIOGRAPHY
Popular History Databases
Databases contain, among other things, the contents of journals; they are particularly good for identifying recent scholarship.
-
ALL HISTORY DATABASESIf you aren't seeing a helpful database, try looking at the whole list! You can narrow them down by material type (newspapers, data and statistics, full text journal articles, etc.).
-
America: History & LifeThe main access point to article literature in American history.
TIP: Add the keywords "historiography" or "review article" to your searches to find articles whose primary focus is historiography. You'll obviously not want to limit your search to historiographical articles only, but they can be a good starting point. -
Historical Abstracts(Searches through citations, subject indexing, and abstracts)
The primary place to find scholarship on world history. (For U.S. and Canadian History, use America: History and Life). Covers publications from 1955 - present. -
Africa Bibliography(Searches through citations and subject indexing)
An indexing database that contains citations to books and journal articles published since 1984. They are searchable by keyword, subject, geographic area, country, and other bibliographic information. -
BAS: Bibliography of Asian StudiesAll subjects (especially in the humanities and the social sciences) pertaining to East, Southeast, and South Asia published worldwide. We won't have full text access to most of the items here, but you can always request items via Interlibrary Loan.
-
HAPI: Hispanic American Periodicals OnlineOne of the most important indexes to journal articles about Central America, South America, the Caribbean, Mexico, Brazil, and Hispanics/Latinos in the United States. Some full-text.
-
International Medieval BibliographyProvides access to over 270,000 citations to articles from periodicals, books, and conference proceedings dealing with the history and culture of the European Middle Ages (450-1500 CE).
-
L'Année PhilologiqueAn index to the literature about Greco-Roman archaeology, history, law, linguistics and literature, philosophy, and science and technology from the 2nd millennium BCE to 800 CE. Covers publications from 1924 to one year ago.
Broad or Interdisciplinary Databases
-
Web of ScienceChoose Social Sciences and/or Arts & Humanities indexes.
Start with a "Cited Ref Search," searching for the author and date of publication. Limit search to "Book Reviews" using "Publication Type" drop-down menu. (citations, 1969- current) -
Academic Search Premier(Searches through citations, subject indexing, and some full text)
Contains scholarly journals, trade publications, and magazines from across the disciplines and from popular culture. Much of the content is available in full text. An ELM Database. -
Humanities International CompleteFull-text of journals, books and other sources from around the world in all aspects of the humanities.
-
JSTOR(Searches through citations and the full text)
A digital archive of important scholarly journal literature from many fields. Most journals are included from their first issue until 5 years ago.
Scholarly Sources
There are multiple types of scholarly resources; each one has a purpose.
-
MONOGRAPH (i.e. a scholarly book)ISBN: 9781452239910Example: Air Wars. Darrell M. West. 2013.
What is it? [Hint: mono=1; graph=written.] A scholarly book written on one topic. Helpful for really deep dives on a big topic.
Use for: Secondary source for research papers (once you have a topic); use its bibliography to find more sources.
Sample advanced search: Any field (contains) "social media" politics television + Material type = Books/eBooks -
EDITED VOLUMESISBN: 1628460342Availability and more information from Catalyst...
Example: Women artists of the Harlem Renaissance. Amy Helene Kirschke, editor of compilation. 2015.
What is it? A collection of articles by different authors, all written on a similar topic.
Use for: Getting oriented to a group of scholars working on a specific topic (then look up other things written by these scholars). A cross-section of the state of the field at a certain point in time.
Sample advanced search: Any field (contains) Harlem Renaissance + Any field (contains) edit* -
SCHOLARLY JOURNALISBN: 00376779Example: Slavic review. American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies. 1961- .
What is it? Scholarly periodicals or journals are collections of short articles written by scholars and subject to peer review (being assessed by other scholars in the field).
Use for: Detailed scholarship on a specific subject, written by scholars in the field.
Sample advanced search: Any field (contains) Slavic history + Subject (contains) periodicals -
BOOK REVIEW byWhat is it? A brief summary of a specific book, plus pros/cons of the scholarship. Usually written by other scholars in the field.
Use for: Assessing whether a source will be useful for your own research/scholarship, and how well it was received within the scholarly community. -
CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS (CONGRESSES)
Call Number: HQ1742 .W6 1999ISBN: 8125907319Availability and more information from Catalyst...
Example: Women, Narration and Nation. Selvy Thiruchandran. 1999.
What is it? Papers that were given at a conference by scholars. Sometimes includes other scholarly responses to those papers, or the remarks of a discussant summarizing the discussion at large. Often scholars present on a topic before publishing a monograph on it; get early trends in a field from conferences.
Use for: Getting oriented to a group of scholars working on a specific topic (then look up other things written by these scholars). A cross-section of the state of the field at a certain point in time.
Sample advanced search: Any field (contains) women "Sri Lanka" + subject (contains) congresses
