English
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Donell Callender E-mail:
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1. Expanding research
General Serial Bibliographies in the Humanities
Check more general sources for interdisciplinary publications you might have missed with the more specialized tools. For example, MLA-IB or ABELL focus on language and literature, so they would not include all the information possible on your topic, if your topic includes historical perspectives. For that, you would have to go to a specialized history index or one of the more general tools.
Humanities International Complete
HIC is "a bibliographic database of articles and creative works (primarily in English) in about 1,000 journals (overall) with full-text for several titles." Harner recommends using the "database-specific Help file to identify the codes for searchable fields," but cautions that HIC "one of the least satisfactory indexes" in his section on General Bibliographies. (G360).
According to Harner, "a subject index to around 400 British and Commonwealth periodicals, BHI is "useful because of its good subject indexing, abstracts, and inclusion of some publications (mostly weeklies and newspapers) not covered by other bibliographies" in his section on General Bibliographies (G370).
Essay and General Literature Index
EGLI is "an author and subject index to essays and chapters in books--both single-author volumes and edited collections--and some annual publications, with emphasis on the humanities and social sciences" (Harner G383).
According to Harner, BI--which provides entries only for biographical materials since 1984--is "useful principally for locating biographical materials in periodicals" (J540).
Specialized Bibliographies and Indexes in Particular Fields
History
Art
Bibliography of the History of Art
Index to 19th-century American Art Periodicals
Music
International Index to Music Periodicals, Full-text
RIPM Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals
African-American Music Reference
2. Evaluating research
Surveys of Research provide essays discussing the best or most important work done in a field in a particular year. Field-specialists read everything published on a particular topic, then discuss both individual critical works and trends in the field. Use these essays to identify what is essential to read. Proviso: essays focus on a single year of scholarship, so you’ll need to look at essays for a range of years to cover your topic.
| Year's Work in English Studies | Search this title in e-journal search "A selective evaluative review of scholarship on English, American, and some other literatures in English. [...] Because it offers the most comprehensive evaluative survey of important studies, YWES can be an invaluable guide to significant scholarship. [...] Together, the annual volumes offer an incomparable record of scholarly and criticla trends as well as of the fluctuations of academic reputations of literary works and authors" (Harner G330). |
| American Literary Scholarship | Search this title in e-journal search "A selective, evaluative survey of important studies, editions, biographies, and reference works. [...] Judicious selectivity, currency, frank, authoritative evlatuions (usually much fuller and more critical than in typical surveys of research) make ALS an indispensable guide to the year's important scholarship and an essential source for keeping breast of the increasing number of publications, especially in areas outside one's immediate fields of interest. Together the volumes offer an incomparable source for studying trends in American literary scholarship and an important complement to MLA-IB (G335) and ABELL (G340), especially for the superior coverage of books" (Harner Q3265). |
| Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory | Search this title in e-journal search YWCCT is "[a] selective evaluative review of critical and cultural theory that emphasizes literature but also includes media and cultural studies," though "the only regular" guide available, Harner finds it an "inconsistent" one (G330). |
| Arts and Humanities Search | The Arts and Humanities Citation Index indicates how often a particular article or book has been cited by other researchers in the field. You use it when you wish to see how influential or debated a particular item on your bibliography has been. |
Book Reviews
*developed with Ann R. Hawkins