Social Studies 98ri: Some Ways to Begin

1. Check to see if a good subject bibliography can direct your reading.

Oxford Bibliographies Online is the database of curated reading lists, and we recommend it for this approach. 

Selective rather than exhaustive and combining a bit of description with a little bit of evaluation, OBO entries help you identify some of the most important and influential scholarship on a broad social, political, cultural or interdisciplinary disciplinary topic.

Often the issue in information-seeking isn't scarcity of material but overabundance. OBO entries can help you solve the dilemma of knowing who to read first, what to read for, or simply which voices in the conversation you should give some fuller attention to.

Sample Entries

2. Look for a more or less recent research overview on your topic or its broader dimensions.

Literature reviews help you easily understand—and contextualize—the principal contributions that have been made in your field. They not only track trends over time in the scholarly discussions of a topic, but also synthesize and connect related work. They cite the trailblazers and sometimes the outliers, and they even root out errors of fact or concept. Typically, they include a final section that identifies remaining questions or future directions research might take.

The historical equivalent of this academic genre is the historiography.

Review essays  are common in humanities fields. Typically, a scholar will take two or three recent, related publications as an occasion to discuss larger trends, approaches, and research directions. 

Strategies for Locating Research Overviews, Review Essays, and Reviews:

  • Annual Reviews are a well-known, time-tested source of stand-alone scholarly literature reviews. You may identify something recent and relevant there to jump start your source discovery.
  • In subject databases, like those described below, you'll often be able to limit by literature review or review essay or historiography. You may need look for these these filters under the document type or methodology category. 
  • In dissertations, lit reviews commonly appear as an introductory or preliminary chapter. Try ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Dissertations aren't peer-reviewed the same way published articles and academic books are, but they can also be a source for topics that are emerging, trending, or very current. 
  • Book length handbooks (also called companions) are typically edited collections of the important, enduring, or agenda-setting scholarship. Since titles often announce them as such, try adding the search term handbook or companion to a HOLLIS topic search. 

3. Build on what you have already: the "item in hand" approach.

You already know the value of examining footnotes and bibliographies for related scholarship or for identifying primary source material.  And you know that whenever you find material by these means, a quick HOLLIS search by book or article title will identify your access options.

Sometimes, though, you want to look beyond the item in hand -- not look at its antecedents but at its descendants -- the scholarship produced later, that has cited your item in its bibliography and footnotes. Following citation trails is a common scholarly practice.

For that strategy, Google Scholar is a great option. Enter the book or article title, and click on Cited By.   Also try Related Articles: the algorithmic way of identifying works that share something significant: emphasis, source materials, key terms, etc. 

Beyond HOLLIS: Research Databases

MULTIDISCIPLINARY STARTING POINTS

Academic Search Premier (EBSCOhost)

Why: The advantages of Academic Search Premier are 1) its multidisciplinary; 2) its inclusion of very recent content; 3) its mix of scholarly, news, and magazine content.

JSTOR

Why: This tried and true database is probably one of the first places you learned to search for scholarly literature. "Smallish" (in relative terms), it's also mighty because the journals it includes are those that, historically, have been considered the most important and most impactful in the fields they cover.  

One nice feature of JSTOR is the ability to zero in on a particular discipline. Scanning the left side limits after you run a straight keyword search might help you pinpoint where the scholarly conversation is clustering (history, Asian studies, urban studies, etc.)

One downside of JSTOR: it typically excludes the most recent 1-5 years of the publications it includes (with some exceptions). That means you may want to supplement / update with  in HOLLIS,  Google Scholar, or one of the subject databases described below. 

Google Scholar

Why: GS searches differently from most library databases, including HOLLIS. In addition to searching "metadata" (lots of descriptive info about a book or article, it also searches full-text . This can be an additional advantage when you've got a very narrow topic or are seeking a "nugget" that traditional database searching can't surface easily.

Google Scholar incorporates more types of information -- not just books and journal contents-- and depending on your need, comfort level, and perspective, that eclecticism can be an advantage.

For reasons we describe in the previous section, GS is also an excellent way to follow citation trails. 

KEY DISCIPLINARY DATABASES

ATLA Religion Database (EBSCOhost)

Why:  Its contents are curated by the American Theological Association Library, the association that since 1946 has led the way in collecting, curating, and disseminating research related to all areas of religion and theology. 

Sociological Abstracts (ProQuest)

Why: A core resource for Social Studies students ecause of its concentrated access to research in sociology, social planning/policy, and related disciplines. Coverage is global. It includes citations and abstracts from over 1800 journals, relevant dissertations, selected books and book chapters, and association papers, as well as citations for book reviews and other media.

Worldwide Political Sciences Abstracts (ProQuest)

Why: WPSA provides citations to and summaries of journal literature in political science and related fields, including political sociology, political theory, economics, law, and public policy, perspectives that Social Studies students often need to access.

America: History and Life and Historical Abstracts (EBSCOhost)

Why: These are the premier database for deep access to scholarly books, journals, and dissertations on the US and Canada, prehistory to present (AHL) and on world history, 1450- present (HA). 

 Pro Tip:  

  • Historically-focused databases allow you to limit to scholarship about a particular time period.  You'll find that option by scrolling below the search boxes.

Specialized Databases

HEIN ONLINE (LAW)

Why: It offers depth and comprehensiveness of laws, law journals, and legal scholarship.  

Pro Tip:  

  • Hein searching requires that you use search conventions much like those in HOLLIS; see the Search Help link beneath the search box for more information.

Project MUSE

Why:  It offers full-text scholarly journals, particularly strong in humanities and social sciences.

Pro Tip:  

  •  Filter for Research Areas, like religion, history, or education.

Primary Sources

Collections Explorer and/or HOLLIS for Archival Discovery

Tolman Index to University Records, 1636-1870 (Harvard University Archives)

  • Within the online version of this resource, see Religion.

HOLLIS

In the Advanced Search, with AND between your search fields,enter any of the following words (below your other search terms) into the Subject contains search filter:

  • Correspondence
  • Diaries
  • Speeches
  • Manuscripts
  • Interviews
  • Memoirs
  • Oral histories
  • Documents
  • Reports
  • Pamphlets
  • Newspapers
  • Congresses
  • Treaties
  • Legislative hearings
  • Acts
  • Brochures
  • Catalogs
  • Cartoons

Searching by Time Period

HOLLIS

In the Advanced Search, with AND between your search fields, enter any of the following words (below your other search terms) into the Subject contains search filter:

To 1500 (Pre-modern period, before the Renaissance and Enlightenment)
16th century (1500-1600, marked by the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Age of Exploration)
17th century (1600-1700, including the Scientific Revolution, Baroque period, and early colonialism)
18th century (1700-1800, marked by the Enlightenment and early stages of the Industrial Revolution)
19th century (1800-1900, a period of industrialization, political revolutions, and colonial expansion)
20th century (1900-2000, characterized by global wars, the rise of modernism, and technological advancements)
21st century (2000-present, including globalization, technological boom, and contemporary political shifts)
1945- (Post-World War II, marked by the Cold War and decolonization)
1900-1914 (The pre-World War I period, known for industrial growth and the build-up to global conflict)
1914-1918 (World War I, a major global conflict that reshaped politics and societies)
1918-1939 (Interwar period, marked by the rise of totalitarian regimes and economic instability)
1939-1945 (World War II, another global conflict, with profound impacts on geopolitics and society)
1945-1990 (Cold War era, defined by ideological and geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union)
1990- (Post-Cold War era, characterized by global political realignments and the rise of globalization)
Medieval (Approx. 500-1500 AD, known for feudal systems, the rise of Christianity, and the beginning of European exploration)
Early modern (Approx. 1500-1800, marked by the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Scientific Revolution)
Modern (Late 18th century onward, characterized by industrialization, modern warfare, and rapid social changes)
Renaissance (14th-17th centuries, a cultural and intellectual revival focusing on classical antiquity)
Colonial (Periods of European colonial expansion, especially from the 15th to 19th centuries)
Postcolonial (Post-WWII period marked by decolonization and the end of empires)
Prehistory (Before recorded history, including the Stone Age and early human development)
Postwar (Period immediately after major wars, particularly post-WWII and post-Vietnam)
World War, 1939-1945 (Another designation specifically for WWII)
Cold War (Post-WWII geopolitical tension between the U.S. and Soviet Union, lasting until 1990)
Great Depression (1929-1939, global economic downturn with widespread social and political impact)
Antebellum (Before the American Civil War, particularly in the Southern United States)
Gilded Age (Late 19th century, marked by rapid industrialization and stark economic inequality)
Progressive Era (1890s-1920, marked by political reform and social activism in the U.S.)
Civil War, 1861-1865 (U.S. Civil War, defining national conflict over slavery and union)
Reconstruction (1865-1877, the rebuilding of the U.S. after the Civil War, especially the South)
New Deal (1930s, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s programs aimed at addressing the Great Depression)

Data and Policy

Getting Around Paywalls on the Web

Get Free Articles Anywhere on the Web: Your HarvardKey can get you access to articles across the web, even many behind paywalls.

  • When all else fails, remember that you can cut and paste the title and put it intto HOLLIS to double-check. If we don't have it, you'll be prompted to request that we get it for you.

Saving and Citing Your Sources

Chicago Style (use Notes & Bibliography format)

Librarians Who Can Also Help

For a full list of  concentration librarians, visit this page: https://library.harvard.edu/services-tools/library-liaisons

East Asian Studies

Jewish Studies

Law

Religion

Statistics, Data, Polling