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Discovering Encyclopedias

Encyclopedias can help you explore the broader issues and themes related to your reserach paper topic.

• Search multiple encyclopedias simultaneously in Gale Virtual Reference Library
  • **Relevant encyclopedia within this tool include Encyclopedia of Gender and Society and more.
    
    
• Search the Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology for possible background on theoretical issues and research concepts.
  
  
• Select from a list of Women's Studies Encyclopedias, or find an encyclopedia related to your topic by using our Online Encyclopedias page.
  
  

**TIP/WARNING:
Though encyclopedia articles often include bibliographies listing important books and articles, the encyclopedias themselves should NOT be considered as one of the 5 required secondary sources for your term paper and outline,

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Searching for BOOKS

• Use CLUES to find books at Concordia Libraries.
  
  
• You could also try out the new Simone's Book List to find books in the Simone de Beauvoir Institute Library.
  
  
• To FIND books at McGill and elsewhere see our Other Library Catalogues page, or try the WorldCat catalogue or even Google Books
  • To BORROW the books you found at McGill or elsewhere see related library services

**TIP/WARNING:
Though books (or book chapters/essays) can prove to be useful sources for your research paper, it will take more judgment and evaluation on your part to determine if they qualify as academic sources. See Help EVALUATING sources for some general guidelines.

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Searching for Articles

Search any of these article databases to identify academic journal articles directly related to your research topic:

• Academic Search Complete
• Gender Studies Database
• SocINDEX
• Sociological Abstracts
• ProQuest Combined Canadian
• Google Scholar
• Depending on the topic you have chosen, additional databases in Women's Studies and even other subject areas may also be useful for you.

**TIP 1: you can click on the Scholarly/Peer-reviewed journals tab or checkbox in most of the databases above to limit your searchese to academic articles only. See also Evaluating Sources.

TIP 2: Use the Findit@Concordia button within the databases to try and access the text of the articles. See also ACCESSING the texts.

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Statistics, News & Government Documents

Depending on your term paper topic, you may need to use some of the tools below for your primary source(s).

NEWS

• To find newspaper & magazine articles as well as media transcripts see our Database Finder Newspapers and News and Current Events lists.
  
  
• Or, connect direclty to these popular picks:
  • CBCA Complete: mostly Canadian sources, both scholarly and popular/journalistic, as welll as selected television and radio transcripts from CBC and CTV
  • Canadian Periodical Index (CPI-Q): Canadian magazines, newspapers, journals.
    
  • Factiva: full-text of international and canadian newspapers
  • Eureka.cc: lots of local Canadian and Quebec publications, plus international newspapers.
    
    
• To look up the names of individual newspapers or magazines available in the Libraries, use the Journal Title Search Option in CLUES or the E-journals search box (for ONLINE only)

CANADIAN STATISTICS

• To find local statistics in all subject areas, start with the Statistics Canada site and use the CANSIM via E-STAT database to access more detailed data and timeseries available to university researchers.
  
  
• Equinox provides raw data but you must know how to manipulate it with programs such as SPSS.
  
  
• The latest edition of Women in Canada: A Gender-based Statistical Report (2010/2011) provides summaries and tables on a good range of social stats (select categories from the left).
  
  
• The book Finding data on women: a guide to major sources at Statistics Canada (2007) can prove useful for understanding how stats on women are compiled in Canada, and in what resources.
  
  
• See also Institut de la statistique du Québec, including a section on Gender-based analysis
  
  

CANADIAN LAW & GOVERNMENT

• For Canadian laws, cases and more legal and justice infos see Legal Information: Canada
  
  
• TIP: In Google, you can add the string site:gc.ca to your search terms to limit your results to Canadian governmental web sites.
  
  

INTERNATIONAL STATISTICS

• Start with: UNData, Country Reports & Profiles and World Statistics.
  
  

ALSO OF POSSIBLE INTEREST (FUN & EXPENSIVE TOOLS!):

• Ipsos News Center (surveys, polls)
• PMB Category Reports (Canadian demographics, consumption)
• See also Demographic Data and Consumer Data

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LOOKING UP & ACCESSING THE TEXTS you want

When searching for articles and books, or examining bibliographies or reading 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.

To find out on your own if you can access the text of any source, you must first determine whether it is a BOOK, BOOK CHAPTER or JOURNAL 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 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.

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 Related Library Services.

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Help Referencing: Bibliography & In-Text Citations

• The American Anthropological Assocation (AAA) style:
  • AAA Citation Style Guide.
    
    
• See also our Citation & Style Guides for help in formatting references using various other styles, such as APA and MLA.
  
  
• See also p. 4 onwards in Writing an Essay 101 for examples of referencing in Women's Studies papers.
  
  
• See How to Cite Sources for help in avoiding plagiarism.
  
  

• RefWorks can help you keep track of your references and automate the creation of your References list.
  • To learn how to send references from your favourite databases to RefWorks see Export-Import Instructions
  • To learn more at a workshop, see the Libraries' RefWorks Workshop Schedule

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Evaluating your Sources

Your professor's instructions should always be the first criteria in determining what qualifies as an appropriate source. For additional guidance in this area, however, you might find some relevant tips in the guides below.

• Scholarly Journals (also called academic, peer-reviewed or refereed) - ppt slide [or see pdf version]
  
  
• From UTSA Libraries: Scholarly Resources
  Lists the common characteristics of scholarly journal articles, books, and internet sources.
  
  
• Ulrichsweb publications directory:
  • look up the name of a journal and find out more about it
  • Scholarly journals are listed with the Refereed/Peer-Reviewed symbol:
    
    
• Evaluating and Citing Web Sites. Though web sites are not part of your required assignment sources, many of the simple criteria listed here can be used to evaluate other information sources as well.
  
  

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Related Library & University Services -- FREE

• Concordia's Virtual Private Network is an alternative to the Library PIN for connecting from home. It allows you to access resources on the web as if you were connecting from within the library.
  
  
• CREPUQ card - allows you to directly borrow books at McGill and elsewhere
  
  
• Interlibrary Loans (COLOMBO) - fill out an online form to receive books and articles 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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Getting HELP

• 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.

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WORKSHOP LINKS

• Presentation slides [PDF]
  
  
• Article analyzed in slides : Race (And Gender and Class) and Child Custody: Theorizing Intersections in Two Canadian Court Cases. [click on View PDF]
  
  
• Handouts/documents discussed:
  • Getting help tip sheet
  • Exercise and DATABASE SEARCH STRATEGIES cheat sheet
  • Finding the full text of articles exercise
  • Examples of topics from past students (provided by Prof Aramaki, also on Moodle)
  • Term Paper Outline Form (provided by Prof Aramaki, also on Moodle)
    
    
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