The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP) has nearly 1600 entries online. From its inception, the SEP was designed so that each entry is maintained and kept up-to-date by an expert or group of experts in the field. All entries and substantive updates are refereed by the members of a distinguished Editorial Board before they are made public. Consequently, our dynamic reference work maintains academic standards while evolving and adapting in response to new research. You can cite fixed editions that are created on a quarterly basis and stored in our Archives (every entry contains a link to its complete archival history, identifying the fixed edition the reader should cite). The Table of Contents lists entries that are published or assigned. The Projected Table of Contents also lists entries which are currently unassigned but nevertheless projected.
There are hundreds of subject-specific encyclopedias, handbooks, dictionaries, etc. available through the library. Look for them in Omni.
EBook Packages
Search within some of our large ebook packages. Some collections are specifically meant for background "reference" information.
Examples:
The perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. From Oxford University Press, VSI offers concise introductions to a diverse range of subjects. Offering a bridge between reference content and higher academic work, all titles provide intelligent and serious introductions to a range of subjects, written by experts in the field who combine facts, analysis, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make challenging topics highly readable.
A selection of online reference books. Each book is only searchable individually.
You are asked to "produce a university-level interdisciplinary research project on a topic that clearly connects to one of the course themes". Your proposal and annotated bibliography require "at least five (5) academic/scholarly sources" from both the sciences and arts/humanities/social sciences".
This guide reminds you of the techniques you learned in the Library Tutorials on Finding Articles, and offers tips to help find resources.
The tutorials on this page are helpful if you're confused.
It's difficult to research something you know very little about. The more you understand the topic, the easier it is to find appropriate search terms and to recognize whether an article or book might be relevant to your topic.
Many of the course readings have a bibliography/works cited/references list at the end. Search out some of the interesting documents through the library, using the skills you learned on "Finding a KNOWN Article" and "Finding Books".
You need to be able to READ a citation to do this effectively. See the tutorial on "Navigating from a Citation to a Document" if you need help with this.
When you access an online document (either a course reading or through an article search), check to see if there are any suggestions for related articles. They could be related by:
Remember to search in the RIGHT PLACE and use the BEST SEARCH TERMS.
Books
Articles
These are some examples of books that could be of interest to research projects. To find others:
Books with call numbers are physical and must be retrieved from the library stacks; books with links are ebooks, accessible online.