Expos 20 | Problems of Meaning: Language, Literature, and Life

Research projects often require you to look close up at a body of research produced by scholars in a particular field.  This research is typically collected, codified, and made findable in a tool called a subject database.

Every academic discipline has at least one subject database that's considered the disciplinary gold standard -- a reliable, (relatively) comprehensive, and accurate record of the books that scholars are publishing, and the ideas they're debating and discussing in important and influential journals. 

Databases are like lenses: they change what you see and how you see it -- and they offer you easy and efficient ways to bring your questions into sharper focus.

Philosophy 

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy 

• Excellent for overview essays written by recognized subject experts and prominent academics, and accompanied by bibliography leads. 

Oxford Bibliographies Online: Philosophy  Harvard Key 

• Annotated reading lists curated by experts, regularly checked for their currency and updated when necessary, OBOs aim to be representative, not comprehensive -- of the most impactful scholarship that's been produced to date. 

PhilPapers

• An online databas of scholarship  maintained by philosophers themselves that collects, categorizes, and makes philosophy research findable.  Specially curated pages perhaps pertinent to course themes include Philosophy of Language (which identifies key works and key introductory texts); Philosophy of Literature; and Literary Values.

LINGUISTICS 

Oxford Bibliographies Online: Linguistics  Harvard Key 

• Annotated reading lists curated by experts, regularly checked for their currency and updated when necessary, OBOs aim to be representative, not comprehensive -- of the most impactful scholarship that's been produced to date. 

Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts Harvard Key 

• A database that identifies articles, books, and other scholarly materials on linguistics and its related fields. 

Psychology 

Oxford Bibliographies Online: Language (Psychology) 

• Annotated reading lists curated by experts, regularly checked for their currency and updated when necessary, OBOs aim to be representative, not comprehensive -- of the most impactful scholarship that's been produced to date. 

APA PsycInfo  Harvard Key 

• The most important database access to research on all aspects of psychology,

LITERATURE 

Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism  Harvard Key 

• A comprehensive survey of the the most important figures, schools, and movements in literary theory.

Oxford Bibliographies Online: Literary and Cultural Theory  Harvard Key 

• Annotated reading lists curated by experts, regularly checked for their currency and updated when necessary, OBOs aim to be representative, not comprehensive -- of the most impactful scholarship that's been produced to date. 

MLA International Bibliography  Harvard Key 

• The gold standard database for topics related to literature in all languages, folklore, cultural studies, theory, and more. 

Multidisciplinary 

Google Scholar

Although it's not a Harvard Library "database," Google Scholar is perfectly acceptable for most general forays into scholarship; its algorithms are excellent and do return relevant results.

One of the best ways to generate research leads with Scholar is to use it to follow citation trails  when you have a known source -- a class reading, a book you've found on HOLLIS that looks promising, an article that's so "perfect" for a research project that you want to see if there's "more like it" out there, waiting to be discovered. 

For example: 

• You can click on cited by to see which scholars picked up and used a research article/book in research. Just enter the title.
• Big "cited by" lists can be whittled down by adding keywords and clicking on the search within cited reference option.
• Related articles helps you identify research that's close ----algorithmically, at least -- to the item you started with. 
• Authors whose names are hotlinked reveal publications pages -- where you migth find additional/related publications (and see their times cited, too!)