POL 315
Political Theory

Professor Walsh
Fall 2007

Finding Books

Use I-Share to search for books by or about your theorist or topic. You can do Author Searches (remember to do last name, first name) or you can do Subject searching. For the kind of assignment you are doing, looking for books "about" your philospoher might be just as helpful as books written by your philosopher.Try using "Advanced Search" to narrow your topic by author and/or subject.

You can do a Subject search for your philosopher:

• Locke, John 1632-1704
• Also try looking at what other Subject headings come up:
  • Locke, John, 1632-1704--Contributions in political science.
  • Locke, John, 1632-1704. Two treatises of government

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What is a professional or scholarly journal?

For your assignment, you are being asked to look at articles from scholarly or professional journals, not articles from popular press sources.

How can you tell the difference?

Scholarly publications publish journals. Popular press publications publish magazines. Journals and magazines are very different from each other. Here are some guidelines for telling the difference:

Appearance:

Scholarly journals are print-heavy. They contain few glossy pictures. They may have tables or charts or photographs, but the graphics are a part of the article, not editorial additions. Scholarly journals do not have many advertisements, and those they do have are usually collected at the back of the journal and are subject specific (in other words they are for products or services that professionals in a field would use--not food or toys or clothing as an example).

Audience:

Who was the article written for? Scholarly articles are written for professionals in an academic or research field. They talk about study findings, theories or concepts, the state of research, etc. Popular articles are written for a general audience. These articles might talk about the same general subjects as scholarly articles, but they discuss it in less detail and without assuming specialized knowledge on the part of the reader.

• Here are 2 articles; both with the topic of blood cancers:
  • This one: Rare marrow cells tackle deadly immune reaction is from Science News, which is a popular magazine. Compare it to:
  • Non-Myeloblative Stem Cell Transplantation and Donor Lymphocyte Infusion for the Treatment of Cancer and Life-Threatening Non-Malignant Disorders. This article comes from Reviews in Clinical & Experimental Hematology; which is a scholarly journal for medical researchers.

Author:

What kind of job job does the author have? What are the author's credentials?

• Popular press articles are written by reporters. The author's name may or may not appear with the article. Reporters are not experts on the subjects they write about. They get the information for the article by interviewing people and doing some general research.
• Scholarly articles are written by professionals in the field. These articles are meant to share a researcher's work with other professionals. An author (or authors) name will appear with the article, as well as any credentials or affiliations that person has.
  

Language:

How does this article sound? What educational level is the article written for? Does the author use specialized language (or jargon)? Does the author assume some level of background knowledge on the part of the reader? Popular press articles are written in more general language for a general audience.

References:

Scholarly articles always contain bibliographies, works cited lists or references. Popular press articles do not.

Here are some links to websites with more information on locating and identifying scholarly articles:

• Distinguishing Scholarly Journals from Other Periodicals

• Scholarly Journals vs Popular Magazine Articles

• Distinguishing Between Popular and Scholarly Sources

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Finding Articles in the Library

There are several different database sources that will contain the kinds of articles that you need for your assignment.

• Academic Search Complete ~ this database has many scholarly sources for political theory articles. Make sure you select "Academic Journals" as your materials choice.
• JSTOR ~ This database is an archive, which means that you will find older articles (roughly 5 years back) from political science journals.
• Also try searching using Google Scholar -- it's a little more user-friendly than the JSTOR interface, and you can find articles in other sources as well--look for the "Find it at Elmhurst" link.
• If you are having trouble finding articles, you can search across multiple databases using WebFeat:

How do I find out if the Library has the journal I need? 3 easy steps:

• Full Text Periodicals Available Online ~ Search for the journal/magazine title, e.g. Western Journal of Communication or Newsweek.
• Check I-Share for the journal/magazine title (not the article title), e.g. Journal of Communication.
• To order an article the Elmhurst College library does not own, fill in this form: Request an article.

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Writing and Citing Information

College Writing and Citing
Citing Electronic Resources
ONLINE! Citation Styles
Citing Sources from the Duke University Libraries

If you need any help finding articles or writing, you can also contact the Reference Desk any time the library is open:

Reference: 630-617-3173
Email: ref[at[elmhurst[dot]edu
AIM: elmhrstcollibref   |   Yahoo!Messenger: eclibraryreference   |   MSN Messenger: ref[at]elmhurst.edu

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Web Pages for Courses: Political Science

Elmhurst College Library