Reference
Sources
Academic
Periodical Index
An
academic periodical index refers the researcher
to where scholarly articles on particular
topics have been published. Some indexes are
general, covering many different topics (e.g. Articles First) while some cover specific
subject areas more comprehensively (e.g. ERIC provides fairly comprehensive coverage
of periodical literature in the field of education).
For Help discriminating between a scholarly
and a non-scholarly periodical, please refer
to the page on Periodicals.
Almanac
/ Yearbook
Almanacs
and Yearbooks are released annually. They
give a "year in review" summary.
General almanacs or yearbooks will provide
a snapshot of what the world or country was
like in a given year, including summaries
of major events, names of people in power,
things that are prominent in the arts, and
statistical information that reflects the
state of the world. Sometimes almanacs and
yearbooks are subject specific, for instance, The UNESCO Yearbook. A subject specific
almanac or yearbook will provide a snapshot
of the state of the world in regards to that
particular topic. Almanacs and Yearbooks are
a significant source for statistical information.
Atlas
/ Maps
These
reference sources are important for conveying
any type of information in correlation to
geographical data. Oftentimes maps and atlases
convey statistical information in compelling
ways. For instance, it is possible to find
a statistical list of the numbers of victims
of ethnic violence in different regions, but
it is much more compelling to see them represented
on a map.
Bibliography
A
bibliography is a relatively comprehensive
list of materials on a particular topic. Often
they provide annotations, which are summaries
and evaluations of the worth of various resources.
When looking at a bibliography, it is important
to note its publication date, because it will
not cover materials produced after its publication.
Bibliographies can be extremely useful in
identifying the core research in a particular
field.
Biography
Biographies
provide information about particular people.
In addition to entire biographical monographs,
there are a number of reference sources which
give brief biographical summaries of people
who are important in particular fields, for
example, Who's Who in America or The
Dictionary of Literary Biography.
Citation
Index
Citation
Indexes, such as the Web of Science database, provide references to works that
have used other works in their bibliographies.
They are very useful for tracking scholarly
coversations, controversies and influences.
They are also very useful for determining
whether or not a particular author or work
is seminal in his/her field, because those
that have been influential will be cited by
other authors working on related topics.
Citation
Style Guide
Citation
styles are the appropriate formats for bibliographies,
footnotes, endnotes and internal notations.
There are a number of approved styles. The
style guides provide the guidelines and examples
for how to appropriately cite different types
of resources. The three most common are The
Chicago Manual of Style, The APA Style
Guide, The MLA Handbook. Turabian
is essentially the same as the Chicago style. There are a couple of other styes that
are used by certain specialties. (Law uses The Bluebook; Medicine uses either
the AMA style or NLM; many of the sciences
use CBE). If you don't know which style to
use, check with your professor or editor.
Dictionary
Dictionaries
provide definitions of terms. Some dictionaries
translate one language into another, some
are general dictionaries that provide definitions
of words in one particular language, some
translate acronyms, some dictionaries provide
definitions of technical terms or jargon for
a specific field. The Oxford English Dictionary,
which is the most authoritative English language
dictionary, also provides the history of the
particular words. Thesauri provide synonyms
for particular words.
Directory
Directories
provide contact information for people or
organizations. Frequently they also give brief
summaries, or put people or organizations
in context. For instance, The Million Dollar
Directory provides contact information
for businesses that are worth over a million
dollars. Among the information given will
also be lists of executive officers, summaries
about numbers of employees and so on. Similarly
the Congressional Yellowbook will give
contact information for all of the congressional
committees, who is on them, what their charges
are, etc.
Encyclopedia
Encyclopdias
provide summaries of the most significant
information on individual topics. Encyclopedias
are often a good place to begin research,
since they summarize all of the critical issues
and give basic background information. There
are general encyclopedias, such as Encyclopaedia
Britannica and subject specific encyclopdias,
such as The Encyclopdia of Religion.
Government
Information
The
United States government, though its branches
and agencies, collects, creates and disseminates
an amazing wealth of information. Although
the University Library receives some of this
information, the Law Library is the official
depository (a partial depository) for government
information. Part of the importance of government
information, especially statistics, is that
it is very authoritative. The primary audience
for government information is the government
itself, so it tends to be as accurate as possible.
An ever increasig amount of government information
is available on the internet as the government
tries to reduce waste. See our page on Government
Information for some starting places.
Handbook
The
idea of a handbook is to put all of the critical
information that you might need on the spur
of a moment for a particular field in one
book. Handbooks tend to be meant to either
be used in a lab or in the field. Handbooks
organize bits of important data that will
enable you to do something. For instance,
the CRC Handbooks (the most important in the
physical sciences) provide the data needed
for the equations necessary to doing scientific
experiments. The DSM IV is the diagnostic
manual for psychiatry and provides all of
the necessary diagnostic criteria for making
a diagnosis. The PDR provides physicians with
the necessary information to prescribe medication.
Newspaper
Index
Newspaper
indexes tell where newspaper articles on a particular topic
have been published. The old print newspaper indexes are important
for articles published prior to full text newspaper databases.
Newspaper indexes refer the researcher to the particular pages
and columns of the newspaper, since most often old newspapers
are only accessible through microfilm. From about the mid-1980's
on, most back issues of newspapers are available through online
subscription databases, like Lexis
Nexis .
Periodical
Index
An
academic index refers the researcher to where
articles on particular topics have been published.
Some indexes are general, covering many different
topics (e.g. Articles First) while
some cover specific subject areas more comprehensively
(e.g. ERIC provides fairly comprehensive
coverage of periodical literature in the field
of education). For Help discriminating between
a scholarly and a non-scholarly periodical,
please refer to the page on Periodicals.
For Help in using print indexes, refer to Print Indexes and
Abstracting Services.
Reviews
Critical
reviews typically summarize the content of
the article being reviewed (book, film, art,
performance etc.), evaluate its quality and
situate it within a context. Reviews are frequently
published in journal literature and newspapers.
Some important indexes for reviews that tell
where reviews have been published are: Book
Review Digest and Book Review Index.
Statistical
Resources
Numerical
data that characterizes a particular population.
Statistics often form the data which is then
analyzed, evaluated and used to make inferences
in social science research. Many governmental
and non-governmental organizations provide
the most reliable statistical data (e.g.
The Statistical Abstracts of the United States or The UNESCO Yearbook).
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