Social Studies 98

Bibliographies, literature reviews, handbooks, and dictionaries help you understand the state of a field, identify landmark works and emerging trends, and pinpoint questions that remain open. Tip: Compare across disciplines; check how the same issue is framed in anthropology vs. engineering vs. policy.

Oxford Reference - Contains dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press. It is a fully-indexed, cross-searchable database of these reference books. A broad subject range of titles from the Oxford Companions Series is available. Search by keyword.

Annual Reviews - This database is a comprehensive, timely collection of critical reviews written by leading scientists. Take a look, especially, at the volumes dedicated to Anthropology, Sociology, Environment & Resources, and Psychology.

Oxford Bibliographies Online (OBO) - This database provides curated reading lists compiled by leading scholars. Search within modules for Anthropology, Sociology, Urban Studies, STS, Media Studies, and Postcolonial Studies.

Sample Entries:

• Materiality (Anthropology module)
• Urban Anthropology (Urban Studies module)
• Global South (Literary and Critical Theory module)
• Homelessness in the United States (Urban Studies module)
• Space and Place (Anthropology module)
• Practice Turn in International Relations (International Relations Module)

Handbooks and Companions
To find handbooks or companions in HOLLIS; search for: infrastructure AND (handbook* OR companion*)

Examples:

• Harvey, Penelope, Casper Bruun Jensen, and Atsurō Morita. 2016. Infrastructures and Social Complexity: A Companion. New York: Routledge.
• Heathcott, Joseph. 2022. The Routledge Handbook of Infrastructure Design: Global Perspectives from Architectural History. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
• Felt, Ulrike. 2017. The Handbook of Science and Technology Studies. Fourth edition. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.

Tip: Pair a concept with a material/technology, e.g., (temporality AND bridge); ( colonialism AND cable); (AI AND governance).

Core Disciplinary Databases

Anthropology Plus

AP combines the contents of two essential databases: Anthropological Index (produced by the Royal Anthropological Institute, UK) and Anthropological Literature (originally produced at Harvard's Tozzer Library and now maintained by the Peabody Museum here). It is considered the resource that most comprehensively convers anthropology, archaeology, subdisciplines, and related interdisciplinary research.

Sociological Abstracts

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.

Philosopher's Index

Provides indexing and abstracts of journal articles, books, contributions to anthologies, and book reviews published worldwide. Topics covered include aesthetics, axiology, philosophy of education, epistemology, ethics, philosophy of history, philosophy of language, logic, metaphysics, philosophical anthropology, metaphilosophy, political philosophy, philosophy of science, social philosophy, and the philosophy of religion.

America History and Life and/or Historical Abstracts

"America: History & Life" is EBSCO’s premier bibliographic database for U.S. and Canadian history and culture, covering everything from prehistory to the present. "Historical Abstracts" is EBSCO’s flagship index for world history (excluding the U.S. and Canada), spanning the 15th century to the modern era with coverage of global historical scholarship.

Urban Studies Abstracts

Includes bibliographic records covering essential areas related to urban studies, including urban affairs, community development, urban history, and other areas of key relevance to the discipline. Records are selected from many of the top titles within the discipline, including Journal of Urban Affairs, Urban Studies, and Canadian Journal of Urban Research. It includes full content of the print version dating back to 1973.

APA PsycInfo 

Produced by the American Psychological Association’s (APA), the renowned U.S. association for researchers and practictions, is the largest resource devoted to peer-reviewed literature in behavioral science and mental health.

Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Culture, Media, and Technology

Film & Television Literature Index

A comprehensive, international bibliographic and full-text database covering the entire spectrum of television and film. Subject coverage includes film and television theory, preservation and restoration, writing, production, cinematography, technical aspects, and reviews.

Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals

Published by the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University, it is the only comprehensive American guide to the current literature of architecture and design. The index covers international, scholarly and popular periodical literature, including publications of professional associations; US state and regional periodicals; and major serial publications in the architecture and design of Europe, Asia, Latin America and Australia.

Bibliography of Asian Studies

Covers a wide range of subjects, especially in the humanities and the social sciences, pertaining to East, Southeast, and South Asia published worldwide from 1971 to the present.

INSPEC

Provides access to bibliographic citations and abstracts of the scientific and technical literature in physics, electrical engineering, electronics, communications, control engineering, computers and computing, information technology, manufacturing and production engineering. Material covered includes journal articles, conference proceedings, reports, dissertations, patents and books published around the world.

PhilPapers: Philosophical Research Online

A comprehensive index and bibliography of philosophy maintained by the community of philosophers. Using advanced trawling techniques and large scale crowdsourcing, we monitor all sources of research content in philosophy, including journals, books, open access archives, and personal pages maintained by academics.

Political Economy, Policy, and Law

EconLit

Provides citations for articles and dissertations in more than 620 journals, books, and working papers on economics, plus full text for more than 560 journals, including the American Economic Association journals with no embargo.

HeinOnline

Database of legal resources, including laws, regulations, some trials and court reports, treaties, monographs, and a variety of other materials covering United States and foreign law. Filter your results to Collection/Library: Law Journal Library; it contains full-text law reviews and legal periodicals, many focused on law-and-society or law-and-humanities journals—where you find scholarship that treats law as a social, political, and cultural infrastructure.

Index to Legal Periodicals & Books

Covers English language legal information, including over 1,025 legal journals, law reviews, yearbooks, institutes, statutes, bar association publications, university publications, and government publications. With nearly 300 law reviews, it provides international coverage with periodicals from the U.S., Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

PAIS Index

Contains continually updated records for journal articles, books, government documents, statistical directories, grey literature, research reports, conference papers, web content, and more. Newspapers and newsletters are not indexed. In addition to English, some of the indexed materials are published in French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and other languages.

Policy File Index

Policy File Index allows users to access timely, updated information from over 350 public policy think tanks, nongovernmental organizations, research institutes, university centers, advocacy groups, and other entities. Coverage is from 1990-present.

Global Development, Environment, and Data Resources

United States Census Data Resources

This Harvard Library research guide provides a starting point for researchers to access United States Census Data online. Additional census material is located in Lamont, Level B.

UNData

UNdata, from the United Nations Statistics Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, provides access to major UN statistical databases and those of several international organizations, through a single entry point. Over 60 million data points cover a wide range of subjects including agriculture, crime, education, employment, energy, environment, health, HIV/AIDS, human development, industry, information and communication technology,national accounts, population, refugees, tourism, trade, as well as the Millennium Development Goals indicators.

WDI Online

A comprehensive database on development data covering more than 700 development indicators, with time series for 208 countries, and 18 regional and income groups. The extensive collection of development data includes population, income, social, economic, financial, natural resources, and environmental indicators for more than forty years (starting in 1960 where data are available).

Global Health

A public health database that provides information on international health, biomedical life sciences, non-communicable diseases, public health nutrition, food safety and hygiene and more. Contains records dating back to 1973.

ICPSR

Provides quick and easy access, with efficient search and browse capabilities, to the world's largest archive of more than 28 digital datasets in social sciences and related areas.
 

Multidisciplinary & Citation Databases

Academic Search Premier

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

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. Scanning the left-side limits after you run a keyword search might help you pinpoint disciplines wherein the scholarly conversation is clustering (history, Asian studies, urban studies, etc.). Be aware that most articles are 1-5 years old due to the moving wall agreement with publishers.

Web of Science

A multidisciplinary database that allows you to search across nearly 10,000 widely read and often cited academic journals and magazines. Includes the Arts & Humanities Citation Index.

Google Scholar

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. It also includes more types of information -- not just books and journal contents; depending on your need, comfort level, and perspective, that eclecticism can be an advantage. It's also an excellent way to follow citation trails.
 

Newspapers

Nexis Uni

Includes print and online journals, television and radio broadcasts, newswires and blogs; Local, regional, national and international newspapers with deep archives, and much more.

Factiva

Provides worldwide full text coverage of local and regional newspapers, trade publications, business newswires, press release wires, media transcripts, news photos, business-rich Web sites, investment analyst reports, market research reports, country and regional profiles, company profiles, historical market data.

Access World News

Provides full-text information and perspectives from over 600 U.S. and over 700 international sources, each with its own distinctive focus offering diverse viewpoints on local, regional and world issues. Date coverage varies with individual newspaper.

Ethnic newsWatch

Full text articles from newspapers and periodicals published by the ethnic, minority and native press in the U.S. Coverage is from 1960 to date.

Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) daily reports

Translations of broadcasts, news agency transmissions, newspapers, periodicals, and government statements from nations around the world . "The United States' principal record of political and historical open source intelligence"--Readex.

ProQuest Historical Newspapers

ProQuest Historical Newspapers is the definitive newspaper digital archive offering full-text and full-image articles for significant newspapers dating back to the 18th century.

South Asian Newspapers (Open Access through East View)

With reportage dating as far back as the 1850s, the South Asian Newspapers collection provides a wealth of coverage and perspectives on major regional and global events of the 19th and 20th centuries. The collection covers several countries, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan), India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, and features multiple languages such as Bengali, Dari, English, Nepali, and more.

Times of India (1861–Feb. 28, 2011)

Considered the world's most widely circulated English daily newspaper, the Times of India was founded in 1838 to serve British residents of West India. This database offers searchable digital reproductions with full page and article images, going back to 1861. For more recent articles, visit the Times of India via Factiva.

South Asian Newspapers (World Newspaper Archive)

South Asian Newspapers is one of the modules of the World Newspaper Archive. When complete, it will provide more than 400,000 fully searchable pages of newspapers published in South Asia dating from the 19th century. Content, made accessible on a rolling basis, will include titles published in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in English, Gujarati and Bengali.

Singaporean Newspapers in HOLLIS

Click the link above to view search results for newspapers in Harvard's collections published in Singapore.

Chinese Newspapers in HOLLIS

Click the link above to view search results for newspapers in Harvard's collections published in China. See also China Core Newspapers full text database.

Guide to Newspapers and Newspaper Indexes

An in-depth guide to newspapers created and maintained by Harvard Librarians. Includes a page covering Newspapers and Newspaper Indexes: Asia

Primary Sources, Archives, and Spatial Resources

Collections Explorer and/or HOLLIS for Archival Discovery

• As a complement, consult the Use Special Collections and Archives (guide).

Havard Library Map Collection librarians: maps@harvard.edu

• Digital Mapping and GIS support: Get help with maps, mapping, geographic information systems, and other geospatial tools, as well as cartographic design.
• Harvard Geospatial Library: A place to search for and download many types of geospatial data.

Use the “item in hand” approach: start from a reading, footnote, or bibliography. Trace the scholarship backward (its sources) and forward (who has cited it since).

• Google Scholar - Search by title, then click "Cited by" and "Related Articles."
• Advanced option: For deeper citation tracing, try Web of Science, which indexes citations with greater precision and allows you to filter by discipline and date and to sort results based on citation counts.
• Save what you find into Zotero (or another citation manager) to build your course Archive and Annotated Bibliography.

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

The official guide to APA style - HOLLIS record for Harvard’s print and online copies of the seventh edition.

Examples of APA style citations, by format (courtesy of Fairfield University Library)

Zotero: Getting Started - Use Zotero to save and tag readings for your Archive. Generate citations for your Annotated Bibliography. Organize references for your Prospectus and Final Paper.

Zotero Workshops - Introductory Zotero Basics sessions offered both online and in person (at Lamont and Cabot). See the Harvard Library Events Calendar for dates and registration.