English -- Summer 2024

Finding scholarly sources

• Use encyclopedias to find articles: Encyclopedias contain bibliographies, which can help you track down important and reliable sources to use and cite in your research. Encyclopedias are also useful for finding names of scholars on a particular topic, and can be an excellent source for keywords for your searches.
• Use relevant scholarly articles to find more scholarly articles: When you find an article that applies to the core of your topic, it's useful to look at the footnotes and bibliography to find additional sources for your research. 
• Search academic databases: I have listed a number of relevant academic databases to use in your searching. Each of these contains a huge number of scholarly articles. Databases like Google Scholar, Proquest and EbscoHost are quite broad in their focus, while others like Black Studies Center and Hapi Online have targeted and sometimes unique coverage. It is sometimes best to start with a larger database to get a feel for what is out there, and moved to smaller and more targeted databases to refine your searching.

written by Meredith Wisner 

• EBSCOhost research databases

  Allows you to search simultaneously across more than one hundred databases in a variety of fields. Includes key databases in Art, Architecture, Business, History, Education, Psychology, Religion, Social Sciences, and Science.

• JSTOR

  Provides page images of back issues of the core scholarly journals in the humanities and social sciences from the earliest issues to within a few years of current publication. Users may browse by journal title or discipline, or may search the full-text or citations/abstracts. New issues of existing titles and new titles are added on an ongoing basis.

• ProQuest

  This resource includes citations and full text articles in academic & professional disciplines, e.g., business, economics, gender studies, health, literature, management, political science; as well as news and general interest items. Search multiple databases simultaneously or select individually from among ABI/INFORM (business); Accounting & tax; the American Medical Association; Dissertations; Ethnic NewsWatch, GenderWatch, Research Library, or major current and historical US newspapers (including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Boston Globe, LA Times, etc).