Expos 20: The Art and Science of Learning

Seminal works do more than put forward interesting ideas; they are the most consequential publications in a given field of study. They are foundational, widely cited works that establish new theories or methods or meaningfully contest the status quo. 

Key Characteristics of a Seminal Work:

• It changed or challenged established paradigms.
• It presented a theory, perspective, or findings central to one or more academic debates.
• It introduced critical concepts, methodologies, or findings that shaped successive research.

Because seminal works are highly cited, you likely may stumble upon these publications. However, it's just as easy to find yourself lost in a sea of articles that refer to these works only obliquely, many having lost the thread of the original arguments they've cited. You may find yourself buried in a tangential conversation that you cannot fully grasp without going to the root of things.

Below are the key library research strategies and tools for finding and tracking the most influential publications on your topic.

Tertiary sources, like specialized dictionaries, encyclopedias, and bibliographies, summarize the key areas of inquiry that occupy scholars in a given domain of study. They outline the central preoccupations within the field and point to the boundaries of its frontiers. Often called "reference works," these resources are a good first stop along your research journey to get your bearings. They offer overviews, authored by experts, that highlight key publications. Be sure not to skip them!

• International Encyclopedia of Education, 3rd edition
  This 8-volume set covers an extensive range of educational topics in depth, with citations to seminal works in the field. Although housed off-site, you may request a whole volume under "Access Options" in the HOLLIS record linked above, or select SCAN & DELIVER (BOOK CHAPTER) in that same HOLLIS record to request a specific entry. Use the online table of contents or the index (partial) to help you home in on an article of interest. Nota bene: The 4th edition, in e-book form, is not an updated version of the same topics from the 3rd edition. Rather, it focuses on select emerging interests and developments in the field of education since 2010.
• Oxford Bibliographies
  Provides faculty and students alike with a seamless pathway to the most accurate and reliable resources for a variety of academic topics. Written and reviewed by academic experts, every article in the database is an authoritative guide to the current scholarship, containing original commentary and annotations. Offers a rapidly expanding range of subject areas, including education, psychology, and sociology, among others.
• 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, as well as The Oxford Encyclopedia of Educational Psychology. Search by keyword.
• Oxford Research Encyclopedias. Education
  Substantive, peer-reviewed, and regularly updated, the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education combines the speed and flexibility of digital with the rigorous standards of academic publishing. Browse by topic or search by keyword to find useful, introductory articles that cite key publications on a range of educational topics.

A literature review evaluates existing published works, indicating that the materials included are somewhat enduring and potentially have been through a peer-review process to ensure their credibility and scholarly contribution. If you cannot find a review that fits your needs within the Annual Reviews database (immediately below), try searching for others using the article indexes listed a bit further down.

• Annual Reviews
  Annual Reviews is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide the worldwide scientific community with a useful and intelligent synthesis of the primary research literature for a broad spectrum of scientific disciplines. The database offers comprehensive, timely collections of critical reviews written by leading scientists. Volumes are focused on disciplines including psychology, developmental psychology, and sociology, among many other fields.
• PsycInfo (APA)
  This premier database in psychology provides systematic coverage of the psychological literature from the 1800s to the present, including educational psychology. Tip: Use the "Methodology" refinement option to select literature reviews.

The seminal article you select may be an essay, or an empirical study, likely indexed in library research databases. The following databases index the scholarly journal literature in education and related fields, often providing full-text access to research articles.

• Education "3-in-1" Articles Search 
  Simultaneously searches ERIC, Education Source, and the interdisciplinary database called Academic Search Premier. 
• Google Scholar
  Searches across a broad spectrum of disciplines. Use Harvard Library settings to help you get from article citations to full text.
• PsycInfo (APA)
  This premier database in psychology provides systematic coverage of the psychological literature from the 1800s to the present, including educational psychology. 
• Social Science Premium
  An index and full text database in the social sciences, including politics, sociology, and education.
• Sociological Abstracts
  A core resource for researchers, professionals, and students in sociology, social planning/policy, and related disciplines. 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.

Once you have found an article you believe is seminal, you can track the scholarship that emanated from it. Citation analysis is a key strategy for evaluating the relative importance of a publication. Be sure to examine the types of journals or authors that have cited your article (e.g., was it included in any review articles?). The following databases facilitate this process.

• Web of Science 
  A multidisciplinary database that allows you to search across nearly 10,000 widely read and often cited academic journals and magazines. Coverage is particularly strong in science related fields, including psychology. Use the CITED REFERENCES search tab therein to find how many times a paper has been cited and by whom. Tip: Use the sorting feature to prioritize the most highly cited articles among those that cited the original (seminal) article.
• Google Scholar
  Because it lists citation counts, use Google Scholar (with Harvard Library settings) to supplement your cited reference searches in Web of Science, above. Note that citation counts in Google Scholar tend to be inflated due to duplication.

Journal articles are the academic's stock in trade, the basic means of communicating research findings to an audience of one’s peers.

In some fields, especially the sciences, where information accrues rapidly and must be disseminated quickly, journal articles are actually the researcher's preferred means of communication.

In disciplines like social sciences and humanities, where knowledge develops a little less rapidly or is driven less by issues of time-sensitivity, journal articles may simply offer the more appropriate vehicle. Not all important and influential ideas warrant book-length studies, and some inquiry is better suited to the size and scope and concentrated discussion that articles afford.

Regardless of the discipline, however, journal articles perform an important knowledge-updating function.

Their quality and authority are established by other scholars, prior to publication, through a rigorous evaluation method called peer-review.

Searching the journal literature is part of being a responsible researcher.

It's the way you tap into the ongoing scholarly conversation. And it's the way you can be sure that the data you have or the scholarly conversation you’re following is in its most current form.