Research Guides: Religion: Articles

Search Strategies

AND / OR / NOT, known as Boolean Operators, are used to connect and define the relationship between your search terms. Use uppercase letters for Boolean operators within searches.

AND

Narrows the search by telling the database or catalog to search for all records with both keywords. Use AND to connect the main concepts you want represented in your results.

college AND "social mobility"–will only find records with both words/phrases.

Broadens the search to include records with either keyword/phrase, or both. Use OR to connect synonyms or associated keywords relating to one of your main concepts.

college OR "higher education"

NOT

*Use only to differentiate between concepts or filter out results if needed.

Narrows your search. Tells database to find results that include the first word and exclude the second word.

cloning NOT sheep

Look at your question(s) - what are the keywords you will use to search?
Now that you have your keywords, write out some possible synonyms of each word or related concepts.
Take notes of what you are using to search
Keep track of what databases you have used

For example, if you are searching for information on the Great Depression, you might also want to look for:

Dust Bowl
Black Thursday
Smoot-Hawley Tariff
Economic Depression

Adjust your searches by narrowing the focus or by combining research terms.

Once you type in your search terms, use the "Refine my results" list on the left-hand side to help narrow down your search by:

format
subject
publication date
and more!

JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Access a wide variety of journal articles in the humanities and other disciplines.
Note: You may not be able to access the most current 2–7 years of certain journals—but many of these recent publications are found in Project MUSE.
Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Provides indexing and abstracts for thousands of journals and other publications. Access broad ranging resources that include full-text journals, monographs, reports, conference proceedings, and video content from the Associate Press etc.
Access broad ranging resources that include full-text journals, monographs, reports, conference proceedings, and video content from the Associated Press, etc.
Research Library (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Covers publications from academic journals and popular magazines in the humanities, social sciences, general sciences, and business.

ATLA Religion Database This link opens in a new window
Indexes journals, essays, and book reviews in the areas of religion and theology.
Religion and Philosophy Collection This link opens in a new window
Contains a large number of journals and magazines covering topics in spiritual, ethical, philosophical, cultural, and historical aspects of the world's major religions.
Brill E-Books This link opens in a new window
Large collection of fully downloadable Brill e-books that cover a wide range of topics including philosophy, religion, middle east studies, african studies and classics. If you see the "green unlock" icon, then Emory has access to the content.
World Religion Database This link opens in a new window
Contains detailed statistics on religious affiliations for every country in the world.
For each of the world’s religions, best estimates at multiple dates for the period 1900 to 2050 are given. The WRD provides access to the sources which underlie the figures in the database, including censuses and surveys. It is constantly updated with new sets of data as they become available.