Skip to Main Content

Religion

Use this guide to find books, articles, databases, and other resources for research in Religion.

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.

OR

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!

Use the information below to help you identify if the source you are looking is a peer-reviewed source or not.

Note: Peer-review is sometimes called refereed. So if you see refereed it means it's peer-reviewed!

  • Is it published in an academic journal? Academic journals are a periodical publication that releases scholarship related to a specific academic field/discipline, such as history or biology.
  • Does the item cite sources, having a extensive bibliography or reference list?
  • Was it written by a scholars or researchers in the field? Most journals will list the authors' affiliations.
  • Look at the format, does it have serious formats? It may contain graphs and charts to illustrate concepts. 
  • Most importantly does the journal state that it is peer reviewed? Some journals have the dates for the peer reviewed process on the article, on others you might want to check the journal's page on their publisher's website. They will state if they are peer-reviewed or refereed.
  • You can look up journals on Ulrich's Web Global Serials Directory, which will mark if a journal is peer-reviewed. Newer journals may not be on Ulrich's yet though!

Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources

Being able to identify the type of source you are looking at is a foundational piece of research. Mastering this skill will help you succeed in research, as how can you analyze or understand a piece of information if you don't know what it is and the context of its creation.  It will also help you with your class assignments. Often professors will ask you to find and use specific types of sources in your assignments. 

The first step you can take to identifying a source is determining if it is a primary, secondary or tertiary source.

Source type Definition Examples
Primary The thing you are analyzing in your research. Often an original creative work, a historical record about events, or survey data. In the sciences primary sources are the publication of original, empirical research.  Historical newspapers, interviews, letters, census data, clinical trials or original experiments.
Secondary Works that analyze primary sources. Secondary sources provide additional commentary, interpretations, or analyses of information from primary sources. They are typically published works that contribute to conversations that are taking place within a discipline. Academic journal articles, books, systematic reviews, meta-analysis.
Tertiary Works that summarize and synthesize information in primary and secondary sources in order to provide background information about a topic, idea, or event. Encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks. 

 

Why source type matters is that it related to how you are going to use the source in your research or how it can be used. Primary sources in your work are things that you are analyzing and require interpretation on your part. Versus secondary sources which you are using to help you with your analysis. If you do not know what role a source is playing in your argument, you may not need that source.

Definitions:

Academic Journal: Academic journals are a periodical publication that releases scholarship related to a specific academic field/discipline, such as history or biology. Academic journals typically are peer-reviewed.

Peer-Review: The process by which a scholarly article is reviewed by other experts in the field before publication to evaluate if the article meets a journal's standards for publication.

Scholarly Article: An article written by a professional researcher or academic scholar who is considered an expert in their field and is published in an academic journal. Works written by an expert in other forms, like a newspaper or magazine would not be a scholarly article as it is not published in academic journal.

Scholarly Sources: are written by experts for other experts in the academic or research fields in order to contribute to scholarship. They are published in specific publication and media types such as books (including companions, handbooks, or encyclopedias), academic journals or academic conference proceedings. They adhere to specific academic guidelines for their field such as citation or formatting.

Popular Sources: are written for a general audience to inform or entertain. They are published in a variety of formats, but are all geared towards a general audience. They may be written by experts.

Databases