Course Number: RE690Subject: Religion and Culture Scholarly sources - introductory tutorials Introductory tutorials Tutorial: How can I tell if my source is scholarly? Tutorial: How do find scholarly books Tutorial: Finding an article when you only know the title Database searching tips Regardless of what you are searching for, or which tools you use, keep in mind the following tips (although be aware that not all databases support each of these options) Tutorial: Developing a research question Consider word variations and synonyms think about how others might refer to your ideas e.g, death rituals --> death OR dying OR funeral OR mortuary Tutorial: Using search words effectively Search Tactics What is the tactic? What does the tactic do? Examples Boolean AND Use AND to ensure that all terms appear in every search result. heterodox AND gnostic Boolean OR Use OR to ensure that at least one term appears in every search result. Tutorial: Better searching using AND, OR, NOT indigenous OR aboriginal Phrase searching Use “quotation marks” to find more than one term in a row. “islamic law” Truncation Use an asterisk* at the end of a term to include multiple endings. (sometimes $) Tutorial: Better searching using truncation religio* religion, religions, religious, religiosity, religousness Wildcard Use a question mark ? within a term to search for variations of a single character. decoloni?e decolonize, decolonise Proximity Use NEAR/n to search for terms within n words of each other (sometimes ADJ/n) "music therapy" NEAR/5 child* OR adolescent* Employ search limiters (available limiters depend on the database) peer reviewed, article type, date Identify key publications and authors note citations, and cited references, repeated author names Document and track everything you do in the steps above __________________________________________________________________ Research example Davis, D. E. (2019). Strong Black Women, Depression, and the Pentecostal Church (Page 23) Tutorial: Planning a literature review Articles Tutorial: Finding scholarly articles on a topic Start at the Religion and Culture Subject guide Researchers rely on curated collections of content according to discipline. Some of the most helpful databases for your research can be found on this page If you are conducting interdisciplinary research, you may want to consider either using those listed on the Interdisciplinary Subject guide, or consult a guide under the subject of your choice on the Subjects page The library has over 400 different databases that you could consider Theses and dissertations What does it look like to do utilize all these databases? See these examples of what Masters and PhD students have done before you, including methodologies and sources. Tieszen, Pamela K. "A Phenomenological Study of Women Administrators' Experiences in Mennonite High Schools." University of St. Thomas (Minnesota), 2017. (see page 11) ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Grey literature Grey literature is information produced outside traditional scholarly publications. It includes reports, policy briefs and reports, major research papers, white papers, working papers, government documents, speeches, etc. There is no single database that covers grey literature well, so Google is helpful in cases like this. Consider the following tips when searching Google, often using these in combination: limit to domain site:ca, site:edu limit to document type filetype:pdf, filetype:pptx think how a document might phrase something, enclose that in quotes heterodox "sufi islam" filetype:pdf site:edu Other resources for graduate students As mentioned in the Colloquium workshop: WorldCat: world's largest library catalogue; request materials outside of Omni libraries through interlibrary loan Graduate student workspace (Waterloo library, 3rd floor) Not mentioned, but helpful: Link to Laurier Scholars Commons, Religion & Culture MAs/PhD theses R&C Major Research Papers