Guides on the Side
Discovering topics and familiarizing yourself with a discipline
- Literati: Using Reference Sources in the Research Process
- Literati: Exploring Disciplines and Seminal Figures
- Gale Virtual Reference Library: Using Reference Sources to Explore Disciplines and Seminal Figures
Finding popular press and trade periodicals
- ProQuest Research Library: Using Popular Press and Trade Periodicals in the Research Process
- LexisNexis Academic: Finding Popular Press Publications
- Opposing Viewpoints in Context
Finding scholarly journal articles
- Finding articles, books, or book chapters from a citation
- EBSCO Academic Search Complete: Finding Scholarly Publications
- ProQuest Research Library: Finding Scholarly Publications
- JSTOR: Finding Scholarly Publications
- APA PsycNET/PsycINFO
Finding and requesting books and other sources
- Library Quick Search using inPrimo
- GMU Library Special Collections and Archives
- GMU Library Books & More search using the Classic Catalog
- Inter Campus Loan: Having books delivered from other Mason campuses
- Washington Regional Library Consortium Loan: Requesting books from other DC-area libraries
- Inter Library Loan: Requesting books from other university libraries around the world
Evaluating sources and tracking scholarly conversations
- UlrichsWeb: Identifying periodicals by discipline, field, or subject area
- UlrichsWeb: Is this a peer reviewed journal?
- Journal Citation Reports: Journal rankings by discipline
- Journal Citation Reports: Determine the median impact factor in a field
- Journal Citation Reports: Determine the impact of a specific journal
- SCImago: Journal rankings by discipline
- SCImago: Determine the impact of a specific journal
- SCImago: Using the Shape of Science visualization tool to discover journals in a discipline
- Web of Science:Â Using the “Times Cited” feature to discover responses to an article
- Web of Science: Using the “Cited References” feature to explore an article’s sources
- Web of Science: Using the “Related Articles” tool to locate sources with similar references to your source
- Web of Science: Using the “Citation Map” feature to visualize a scholarly conversation
What are these?
The Guide on the Side tools introduce core concepts for the use of academic and scholarly databases and search tools.
Some of these need editing
At this point, most of these Guides are ready for use, but a few are still in the process of revision and editing. If you see a tool that requires further revisions or editing, please use the feedback mechanism on the last slide to let us know!