What is a journal?
A journal is a type of publication published periodically, and composed of articles written by different authors. A journal usually focuses on a specific discipline, field of study, or topic area, and is intended for a specific audience, rather than for the general public.
An article is a short piece of writing on a specific topic. In journals, articles most often present some sort of original research and are usually peer-reviewed. Articles tend to contain new and developing research, though it should be remembered that the publication process can take a year or two, so research presented in an article may be nearly a year old. Articles allow researchers to periodically posit new ideas and the share the progress of their research with one another.
An abstract is a brief summary of a piece of writing.
An issue is an individual release of a journal. Journals may publish more than one issue per year.
A volume is all of the issues published in a year.
Journals are also called "periodicals" or "serials", simply meaning that they are a type of publication created periodically.
A Periodical is a publication produced periodically, for example, newspapers, magazines, and some journals.
A Serial is a publication produced as a series, and they may or may not be periodicals. Examples of serials include yearbooks, indexes, and some books and journals. Note: Series and serials are different. A series of books, for instance, is a collection of independent, but related stories, while a book serial is one story published in parts. A book released weekly chapter by chapter in a newspaper would be an example of a serial.
What is original research?
Original research is the research done by an individual or group of individuals. It is their own ideas, work, and the data and conclusions produced by that work. Original research is considered a primary source, and is in the form of datasets, reports, and other documentation of the work.
An article is considered original research if it is a report of a piece of research written by the people who actually conducted the research. The article will describe the researcher's hypothesis, research methods, results, and conclusions.
What is peer-review?
Peer-review is a process where a work is assessed by others and is approved, critiqued, or rejected.
A peer-reviewed article is an article which has been assessed by the author's peers to determine if it is an acceptable piece of research for publication.
Resources at Harvard
The Harvard Oriental Series
The Harvard Oriental Series is a monographic serial founded in 1891 to provide scholarly English translations of the ancient Hindu Vedic texts. Its inaugural editor Charles Rockwell Lanman was an American scholar of Sanskrit who wrote the widely used Sanskrit Reader (1884). The series is now edited by the Wales Professor of Sanskrit in the Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies at Harvard University, and distributed by the Harvard University Press. It has grown to an 80-plus-volume collection of text editions, translations, and studies of major texts in Hindu and Buddhist traditions. A subseries, Harvard Oriental Series Opera Minora, "aims at the swift publication of important materials that cannot be included in the mainly text-oriented Harvard Oriental Series."
Indexing of South Asian Studies Periodicals
In addition to the resource listed below, see the sections of this research guide on Databases, Bibliographies & Indexes and Newspapers & Magazines.
Guide to the Indexing of South Asian Studies Periodicals
Identifies and lists periodical titles with South Asian Studies content. It also identifies if a particular title has been indexed and if so, to what extent. Refer back to HOLLIS to see if Harvard Library owns a given title.
SALToC: South Asian Language Journals Cooperative Table of Contents Project
Provides browsable tables of contents of journals in South Asian languages.
Journals in South Asian Studies
Some universities with South Asian Studies programs and South Asian Studies associations produce journals in South Asian Studies.
Asian Ethnology
Presents formal essays and analyses, research reports, and critical book reviews relating to ethnology throughout Asia, including narratives, performances, and other forms of cultural representation; popular religious concepts; vernacular approaches to health and healing; local knowledge; collective memory and uses of the past. For earlier issues, search for Asian Folklore Studies (ISSN 0385-2342) in HOLLIS.
South Asia Open Archives
The South Asia Open Archives (SAOA), a subset of the South Asia Materials Project (SAMP), creates and maintains a collection of open access materials for the study of South Asia. This major collaborative initiative is aimed at addressing the current scarcity of digital resources pertinent to South Asia studies and at making collections more widely accessible both to North American scholars and to researchers worldwide.
Publications of South Asian Learned Societies
Regional Bhakti Scholars Network
A virtual community of scholars who study regional bhakti traditions in their broader contexts.
Indian Society for Ecological Economics
Click the link above to view holdings in HOLLIS of publications generated by this Learned Society of India.
Calcutta Historical Society
Click the link above to view holdings in HOLLIS of publications generated by this Learned Society of India.
Bangla Academy of Bangladesh
Click the link above to view holdings in HOLLIS of publications generated by this literary society of Bangladesh.
Bangiya Sahitya Parishad
Click the link above to view holdings in HOLLIS of publications generated by this literary society of India.
Dravidian Linguistics Association
Click the link above to view holdings in HOLLIS of publications generated by this Learned Society of India.
Indian Council of Philosophical Research
Click the link above to view holdings in HOLLIS of publications generated by this Learned Society of India.
Madras Literary Society
Click the link above to view holdings in HOLLIS of publications generated by this Learned Society of India.
Paschimbanga Bangla Akademi
Click the link above to view holdings in HOLLIS of publications generated by this regulatory body of the Bengali language in West Bengal, India.
