How to Interpret Citations
Once you find a useful source, check the bibliography to find other, related sources. How do you know if a citation refers to a book or an article? Here are two quick ways to check:
1. If you see a place of publication, like New York or London, the citation is for a book or book chapter. Example:
Davis, Thadious M. Games of Property Law, Race, Gender, and Faulkner's Go Down, Moses. Durham: Duke UP, 2003
2. If you see two titles and coded reference to a volume and issue number, the citation refers to a journal article.
Jerng, Mark. "The Character of Race: Adoption and Individuation in William Faulkner's Light in August and Charles Chesnutt's The Quarry." The Arizona Quarterly: A Journal of American Literature, Culture, and Theory. 64.4 (2008): 69-102.
Recommended Article Databases for this Class
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new windowAlways a great place to start! Huge database that covers both scholarly and popular sources in every discipline.
- Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new windowThe go-to resource for the latest research in sociology and related disciplines. International in scope.
- Worldwide Political Science Abstracts This link opens in a new windowCurrent research in political science and related fields, including public administration and policy.
- PAIS (Public Affairs Information Service) Index This link opens in a new windowGovernment, international relations, poli sci, statistics, and related areas.
- Web of Science This link opens in a new windowDespite its name, Web of Science covers research journals and other materials across hundreds of disciplines
- PubMed This link opens in a new windowCitations and abstracts for millions of articles in medicine, life science, and health administration
- Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new windowScholarship on the history the world from 1450 to the present (excluding the U.S. and Canada). Articles from 1954 onward.
- America: History and Life This link opens in a new windowCitations to articles on the history of the U.S. and Canada from prehistory to the present.
- Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new windowNews, culture and history from publications of the ethnic, minority and native press.
- GenderWatch This link opens in a new windowExcellent database for in-depth coverage of publications that focus on the impact of gender across a broad spectrum of subject areas.
- Alternative Press Index This link opens in a new windowCitations from roughly 380 alternative, radical, and left publications, which report and analyze the practices and theories of cultural, economic, political, and social change.
