LibGuides: GENS 175: Justice (Joshua) : Reference Sources

Reference Sources

Your job today is to find a reference source, which generally means an encyclopedia article. This is a bit different than the other types of sources because it is what we call a tertiary source, more on that later.

Encyclopedias are written by experts in a field to provide information on different topics in the field, they can be very specific like the Encyclopedia of American Women and Religion, or they can be very broad like the Encyclopedia Britannica which broadly covers "general knowledge".

Below is a database we have that collects a lot of different encyclopedias, so you might get multiple results for the same term or topic because it's covered from different disciplines, sub-disciplines or perspectives. Try searching this database and see what types of articles you get.

Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new window

Encyclopedia of Diversity and Social Justice

Annual Reviews This link opens in a new window
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Literature reviews for many different disciplines in biomedical/life sciences, physical sciences, and social sciences.
Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
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Reference sources for all subjects, including encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri, quotations, and subject-specific titles.

Once you have found an article, read it and consider the following:

Who wrote it?
What are their sources?
How would you use this article? How does this help with your topic?
What might I mean by this being a tertiary source rather than a primary or secondary source?

If you have time, consult the Wikipedia article on the same topic and compare them. What are each of them citing? Is one broader (or more narrow) than the other? Do they have similar usefulness to you?