WSDB 292: Library Guide

• Academic Search Complete (large & multidisciplinary)
• SocINDEX 
  
• Anthropology Plus
• Gender Studies Database
• LGBT Life Fulltext
• Race Relations Abstracts

Any or all of these 6 EBSCO  databases above can be searched TOGETHER
*just select Choose Databases

 You may also like:

• Google Scholar 
  (see: How to set up Google Scholar to find Concordia Resources)
• JSTOR (though NOT for the most current issues of all journals)
• Érudit (for French language references)

Highly scientific and multidisciplinary:

• Scopus  
• Web of Science  

**FUN TIP:
If you have found an interesting citation that is not very recent, use the "Cited by" link available  in many databases (especially in Google Scholar) to find similar and more recent articles**

MORE USEFUL TIPS:

• For Quick Tips on how to enter search terms in most of these databases, see this one-page SEARCH STRATEGIES CHEAT SHEET.
• You can click on the Scholarly/Peer-reviewed journals/Academic Articles checkbox in most of the databases above to ensure that the citations you choose are acceptable peer-reviewed articles. See also Evaluating Sources.
• Use the Findit@Concordia button within the databases to try and access the text of the articles. See also ACCESSING the texts.

MORE USEFUL TIPS:

• For Quick Tips on how to enter search terms in most of these databases, see this one-page SEARCH STRATEGIES CHEAT SHEET.
• You can click on the Scholarly/Peer-reviewed journals/Academic Articles checkbox in most of the databases above to ensure that the citations you choose are acceptable peer-reviewed articles. See also Evaluating Sources.

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For general guidelines on how to write a literature review, including an example of one published in a sociology journal. 

• How to write a literature review

Most articles in scholarly journals include a literature review as part of their text, either labeled as such or integrated within the text. For example:

• an article about disability with a very short literature review, extended by a historical background section. 
• 3 examples of articles with clear LITERATURE REVIEW SECTIONS  (via shared Zotero library).
  Click on the title to find the URL of the article, including the lit review

Some articles articles are entirely devoted to providing a review of the literature. For example:

• an extensive literature review in the journal Intersectionalities.

**NOTE:  YOUR PROFESSOR'S INSTRUCTIONS TAKE PRECEDENCE OVER ANY GENERAL INFO GUIDES OR LIT REVIEW EXAMPLES AS ABOVE. 
 

A small set of specialized scholarly journals contain ONLY articles which have as their main task to review or survey the literature related to a research topic. While none of these are specfically feminist journals you can still take a look at these:

• Compass Journals. Though there is no Feminist Compass, Compass titles that could be relevant include:
  • Sociology
  • Geography
  • Social & Personality Psychology
  • Philosophy
  • History
  • Religion
    
    
• Annual Reviews 
  (There is no Feminist Annual Review, but Anthropology, Sociology and Psychology Annual Reviews might be useful)
  
  *WARNING: Depending on your topic, you may not find any relevant articles from survey or review journals. You will in any case need to search the databases below to identify more of your required scholarly/academic sources.

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Sofia Discovery tool - find print books, ebooks, and more at Concordia and worldwide

• "Browse the shelf" to see neighbouring books to the item that you have selected

Explore our ebooks by publisher

Google Books: search within books, without full access

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A wide variety of potential primary sources are available online as well as at Concordia Library and other local research centres. To get an idea of what kind of material might be useful to you, take a look at our  Library Research Tutorial section: Which sources will answer my question?

You can either:

1. Use any method of your choosing, such as Googling, or browsing curated lists like those in Good Reads or Amazon, or  Concordia's Indigenous authors in the spotlight - Memoirs  to see what autobiographies are out there, and then:
   • Use our Sofia Discovery tool  to search for that autobiograpy at Concordia, or at Libraries Worldwide (you can borrow PRINT books  from other libraries  via Interlibrary loans)
     
     OR
      
2. Search the Sofia Discovery tool by keyword to find autobiographies and books ABOUT autobiographies.  You can add add ge:autobiographies to narrow your keyword search and sometimes ge:biographies also works.
   
   OR
   
   
3. For more popular (less academic) autobiographies, use your local public library or BAnQ La Grande Bibliothèque.

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• Search our Sofia Discovery tool for individual film titles
• How to Find Videos at Concordia
  
  • see especially: online video databases
  • or try: Databases by Subject: Videon Databases

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• Canadian Newsstream: full-text access to Canadian daily newspapers including the Gazette.
• Eureka.cc: full text access to English and French language Québec & Canadian newspapers , magazines, newswires, blogs and broadcast transcripts.
• Canadian Periodical Index (CPI-Q): newspapers, magazines, journals.
• Factiva: Full text of international newspapers (including Canadian), transcripts and newswires (license for only one user at a time).

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• Defining Gender, 1450-1910. Pamphlets, diaries, periodicals, letters, poetry, receipt books, and conduct and advice literature. Essays and scholarly overviews support study and research in gender, leisure, and consumer culture.
• British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries
• North American Women's Letters and Diaries 
• Women and Social Movements in the United States 
  
  
• Vogue Archive (entire run of Vogue magazine (US edition) from 1892 to the present)
  
  
• NOTE: For more information and context on historical sources see the History Research Guide and for more Primary Source Databases see our entire listing.

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CANADIAN STATISTICS:

• To find local statistics in all subject areas, start with the Statistics Canada site.
  
  
•  Women in Canada: A Gender-based Statistical Report
   
• for QUEBEC ONLY see also Institut de la statistique du Québec
  
  
  

CANADIAN LAW & GOVERNMENT:

• To find CANADIAN LAWS & COURT CASES, see our guide: Law & Justice: 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 if you are looking for government documents.
   

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Archival and primary sources can be found in many different places and in many different libraries depending on the context. For instance:

• BANQ Digital Collections & BANQ Numérique offer access to the digitized archival material of Quebec's national library. 
• Concordia Library Special Collections on the Vanier campus 
• Concordia University Archives. 

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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You can choose from several Chicago citation style guides. The following are good choices:

• Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide (Chicago Manual of Style)
• Concordia Library Chicago citation quick guide - author-date style
• Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) Chicago guide 
  
  

ZOTERO is a free and popular citation tool
(and our new alternative to RefWorks, which will be phased out by April 2020)
To begin:

1. DOWNLOAD the appropriate Zotero program for your computer and Connector for your browser
2. Register for a free account
3. Learn more via our Zotero help page or workshops
   
    

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