Just for You

Information for Graduate Students tries to bring together all the library-related resources and services you will need for your studies at Concordia. It can help you pinpoint the best spots on the library web site for graduate students and discover the perks reserved for grad students only.

And don't forget our Research Guides by Subject, especially:

• Anthropology
• Sociology

Literature Reviews, Topic Surveys, Overviews

WRITING GUIDE:

You might find relevant tips or refreshers in our library help guide How to write a literature review. It includes an example from the journal Sociological Review.

 

REVIEW & SURVEY JOURNALS:

Articles in these specialized journals can be especially useful, as one their main tasks is always to review or survey the literature related to a research topic. Popular review and survey journals include, but are not limited to:

• Annual Reviews
  [your searches here will by default include Annual Reviews in multiple subject areas, but you can select Sociology or Anthropology in the drop-down JOURNALS box]
  
  
• Selected Wiley-Blackwell Compass Journals, including Sociology Compass.

 

SCHOLARLY ENCYCLOPEDIAS:

For new or unfamiliar fields, scholarly encyclopedias can also provide useful topic overviews, as well as handy bibliographies listing some of the "major" sources and authors in a subject area.
SEE:

• BLACKWELL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SOCIOLOGY
  
  
• The library finding guide: Online Reference: Encyclopedias
  
  
• Searchable collections of encyclopedias: Gale Virtual Reference Library and Oxford Reference Online
  
  
• The Research Guide for a particular discipline may also list recommended encyclopedias and reference sources.
  
  

TIP: both encyclopedias and review articles can also help you find highly-cited authors and 'experts in the field', as can Citation searching, below.

 

DISSERTATIONS/THESES:

Dissertations and theses almost always include literature reviews and long bibliographies. They also cover topics that are new or emerging.

• See the guide How to find theses
• Search Proquest Dissertations and Theses.
  
  

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SEARCH STRATEGIES...

FINDING LIT REVIEWS - SEARCH TIPS:

• In Google Scholar, Google and Google Books, as well as subject-specific Article Databases, include strings such as "literature review " OR "review of the literature" OR "review essay" in your searches.
  
  
• In Web of Science [which includes Social Sciences and Arts & Humanities databases]: after entering a search choose Refine Results -- Document Type: Review.
  
  
• For informal reference lists on various topics of interest to scholars and students worldwide, see the 'groups' or 'shared areas' in popular bibliographic management/scholarly networking sites.
  
  

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Citation Searching, Related Articles

You can use the "Cited by" link available in many databases to find out who is citing an article that is relevant to your topic. For example:

1. In Google Scholar, type in, using quotes (""), the title of a relevant article or book.
2. At the search results page, click on the Cited by link under the citation to that article or book. You can then even search within those citing articles by using the checkbox.

*Note that you can also use the same technique when searching Google Scholar by keyword instead of starting with a known title.

1. In Web of Science, enter a topic, title or author.
2. At the results page, click on the number link beside Times Cited under the citation to the article(s) of interest.

RELATED ARTICLES:

In Google Scholar and Subject-Specific Databases -- especially Web of Science -- also try out the Related Articles or Related Records link to see if it can lead to additional articles that your own keyword seaching did not retrieve. In Web of Science, the related articles are ones that have citations in common in their bibliographies.

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Subject-Specific Article Databases

There are several possible ways to identify subject-specific databases available at Concordia.You might:

• Start with the Research Guide for a discipline to discover and access the article databases recommended by the subject librarian for that discipline.
  
  
• Use the Database Finder on our homepage for quick alphabetical access to your favourite already-known Databases.
  
  
• Explore the new Database Search option in CLUES (and let us know what you think, since this will soon be replacing the Databases Finder above).

 

Examples of popular choices for Sociology and Anthropology researchers include but are in no way limited to:

• SocINDEX
• Academic Search Complete
• Gender Studies Database
• Sociological Abstracts
• Anthropology Plus
• JSTOR (not really a database; narrow your search by selecting one or more Discipline Limits)
• ProQuest Combined Canadian

 

USEFUL SEARCH TIPS: see this one-page cheat-sheet.

 

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Library Catalogues For Books and More

AT CONCORDIA:

• Use our library catalogue CLUES:
  • try the Search Options for Title, Author, Advanced Keyword and more
  • when you find items of interest, click on the Subject Headings to browse for more related items.
    

BEYOND CONCORDIA:

• See our other library catalogues page to check for material at other institutions locally and worldwide.
  
  
• WorldCat simultaneously searches the catalogues of more than 10,000 libraries worldwide.
  
  
• Google Books searches within the pages of millions of books.
  
  

 

For more information on how to look up & access books and other material that you have identified in your searches or found in lists of references, see Looking up & Accessing Material.

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News Archives & Online Reference

• The Database Search option in CLUES offers a listing for News & Current Events Databases, including the subcategories:
  • Newpsapers
  • Newspapers & Magazines - Historical.
    
    
• To look up a specific newspaper, use the Journal Title Search Option in CLUES or the E-journals search box. See Accessing Material for more info.
  
  
• Our Online Reference pages include a section for News sources: Canada | US | International.
  
  
• There is more to explore in our Online Reference pages. Try for instance: Statistics, Public Opinion Polls, Law & Justice, Grants & Funding, Country Reports.
  
  

News, archival and reference sources can be found in many different places, depending on the context. If you are not certain that you are looking in the right places, use one of our our ASK A LIBRARIAN services or contact me.

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Advanced Search Tips for Google tools

Take the time to read the Advanced Search tips for the most common Google search tools:

• Google Advanced Tips - for example, add the string site:gc.ca to limit your results to Canadian governmental web sites, and site:edu to limit your results to mostly university web sites.
  
  
• Google Scholar Advanced Tips - try to restrict by author, date, publication.
  
  
• Google Books Advanced Tips - for example, exclude magazines from your search results.
  
  

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IMPORTANT TOOLS AND SERVICES...

LOOKING UP & ACCESSING THE TEXTS you want

When using library databases (as well as Google) or examining bibliographies or reference lists from various sources, you will sometimes come across citations to texts or documents that you would like to access as a Concordia student, either online or in the library.

You can always get help with this from one of our ASK A LIBRARIAN services.

SETTING UP GOOGLE SCHOLAR TO ACCESS TEXTS:

• Set up your Google Scholar Preferences to use Findit@Concordia.
  
  
• Download and install the Concordia VPN [Virtual Private Network] to seamlessly access many of the resources from your Google Scholar search results, as if you were connecting from within the university, with no need for a Library PIN.
  
  

To find out if you can access a text using Concordia Library Tools, you must first determine whether it is a BOOK, BOOK CHAPTER or JOURNAL/PERIODICAL ARTICLE:

TO ACCESS BOOKS & BOOK CHAPTERS:

• Just use the Title Search Option in CLUES to look for the name of the BOOK (not the book chapter).
• You can also use the Author Search Option in CLUES to look for the LAST name of the AUTHOR or EDITOR of the book (not of the book chapter).

TO ACCESS JOURNAL/PERIODICAL ARTICLES:

First enter the name of the JOURNAL using:

• The Journal Title Search Option in CLUES
• OR the E-journals search box (for ONLINE only)
  
  

...and then select the year, volume and issue that you need as indicated in your citation. For journals that are not available online, you can go in person to the Periodicals section of the library, or fill out an Article Delivery Form.

 

INCOMPLETE CITATION -- NOT SURE WHAT IT IS?

If the citation you have is unclear or incomplete, and you still can't tell whether it is a journal, book, or book chapter:

1. Try using Google, Google Scholar or Google Books to find out more and get a complete citation or reference.
   
   
2. You can then look up the citation via the methods above for BOOKS & BOOK CHAPTERS or JOURNAL ARTICLES.

 

**TIP 1: In Google you can always use quotation marks ("") around the titles you are seeking for quicker and more precise retrieval.

**TIP 2: If the document or text you want is NOT available through Concordia Libraries, see CREPUQ and COLOMBO under Related Library Services.

 

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RELATED SERVICES -- FREE

• CREPUQ card - allows you to directly borrow books at McGill and elsewhere
  
  
• Interlibrary Loans (COLOMBO) - fill out an online form to receive journal articles (and books) from other libraries
  
  
• Article Delivery Service - Free email service for journal articles only available in print or in microform at Concordia.
  
  

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BIBLIOGRAPHIC MANAGEMENT: REFWORKS AND MORE

• REFWORKS not only creates bibliographies. It can also help you keep track of and annotate your references, as well as share them with your colleagues.
  
  
  • Sign up for a RefWorks account: click on Sign Up for a New Account and follow the instructions.
    
    
  • For instructions on sending references from your favourite databases and aggregators to RefWorks see Export-Import Instructions
    
    
  • Set up your Google Scholar Preferences to use RefWorks.
    
    
  • See the Concordia RefWorks Shared area to see how others at Concordia are using RefWorks
    
    
  • To practice on your own, see this detailed RefWorks Exercise & Guide
    
    
  
  
• ZOTERO and MENDELEY are two popular (and free) alternatives to RefWorks.
  
  
  • See this 3-way comparison document from UBC.
    
    
  • Or refer to the detailed wikipedia Comparison of reference management software.
    
    

PREPARING/FIXING THE BIBLIOGRAPHY:

• References according to the American Sociological Assocation style:
  • ASA Quick Style Guide
  • The complete ASA Style Guide booklet is available at the Webster Library in the Reference area: REF HM 73 A82 2007
    
    
• For help with references according to other bibliography styles (ie APA) see our Citation & Style Guides
  
  

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Keeping up to date with search alerts and RSS feeds

• Though each resource is different, Google Scholar and almost all Subject-Specific Databases offer you the option to create an alert that will let you know whenever a particular search produces new results. You can usually choose between email alerts or RSS alerts, for which you need to first set up an RSS Reader.
  
  
• To learn about RSS Readers and alerts, see our library help guide How to use RSS, and see our RSS Instructions for Databases to learn how to create an alert from your favourite resource.
  

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Getting More HELP

• WORKSHOPS: As of January, see the schedule of Concordia Libraries Workshops and GradPro Skills Library-Related Workshops.
  
  
• Quick help is always available at our Reference Desk on the second floor of the Webster Library or from one of our other Ask a Librarian services - pick your favourite option.
  
  
• If you are still not finding what you need or you would like more assistance, please feel free to contact me to make an appointment.
  
  
• There are also many help guides and videos available on our web site, such as the step-by-step guide How to find articles if you need a good refresher.

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