HUMS 4500

How to choose an essay topic

Explore your topic

Omni searches multiple resources all at once. Search Omni to find books, eBooks, journal titles, games, music, videos, government information, maps, and more.

This search tool doesn't search everything that the library owns. You will still need to search other resources to find everything you need. Check Omni help guides for tips on how to perform an Advanced Search.

Need additional help? Please contact Research Help.

Use reference materials to get started on your research.

Key Resources

• Oxford Reference (Online)
  - Oxford Reference is the premier online reference product, spanning 25 different subject areas, bringing together 2 million digitized entries across Oxford University Press’s Dictionaries, Companions and Encyclopedias.
• The Oxford Companion to Canadian History / Gerald Hallowell (2004)
• Dictionary of Canadian Biography / W. Stewart Wallace (1963)
• The Oxford Handbook of Canadian Politics / John C. Courtney ; David E. Smith (2010) JL15.O94 2010

Selected Subject Guides

• Canadian History
• History
• Philosophy
• Sociology

Search Tools:

• HathiTrust Digital Library
• Internet Archive: eBooks & Texts
• World Digital Library : Philosophy and Psychology
• WorldCat
  • Oxford Scholarship Online

Search Tool

The library has Omni, a search tool that lets you do just one search to find books, newspaper articles, journal articles, etc. You can use our various journal article databases to find journal articles, but this search tool gives you another option that lets you do both at the same time.

1. Click on Advanced Search and key in your search statement.
2. When you get your results, use the filters on the left side of the screen to further refine your results.
3. This search interface also find relevant eBooks and chapters within books in our library, government information, etc.

If something is available in paper copy in the library, Omni will give you the floor location and the call number (which you need in order to find the item on the shelf). If something is available online, click on the "Full-text online" link.

Search Tips

Omni is a good place to start your research, however, remember to use databases to search for individual article titles. Only the titles of journals are included in the search tool, so it is best to find journal articles from within these three types of databases: subject specific, multidisciplinary or general.

Keyword Searching
When keyword searching, if a keyword exists in the subject heading or in the title, the resource is much more likely to be about that topic. You can construct sophisticated searches by specifying that your search terms must exist in particular fields of the record. Always use the Advanced Search option if available in the database. You will retrieve more relevant and meaningful search results.

When you find a relevant title, scroll down to see the subject headings. Click the links to search for other related items.

Example: Europe -- Intellectual Life -- 18th Century

Other access points

• Any field - Here you can Input any words or phrases.
• Author/Creator - If you know the author, then enter the author's name with the surname first.
• Title - Use this option if you know the title of the item you seek
• Subject - Use keywords only, do not search using a full sentence.
• Call Number - Key in the Library of Congress Classification code in this field..
• Combine keywords for different ideas with AND

  Example: learning AND scholarship

• Combine synonyms or similar words for an idea with OR
  Example: "political culture" AND film* OR "motion pictures"
  
• Use the truncation symbol * when you want to allow for several spellings or variations on a word
  Example: (women OR feminis*) AND "intellectual life"
• Need more help with searching? Check Omni Search Tips

eBooks

eBooks can be found by author, title, keyword/subject terms searching.
Do a search in Omni and then limit your search to retrieve only eBooks by Content type.

• Ebook Central
• eBook Collection (EBSCOhost)

Academic Journals vs. Popular Magazines and Newspapers - do you know the difference? Check in Ulrichsweb to be sure!

Why use journals?

• They are more up-to-date than most books.
• They are “peer reviewed” by other scholars in the field who check for academic integrity.
• They are concise and focused on a specific aspect of a topic.
• Every article will contain cited references that appear as footnotes and/or bibliographies.
• Most are now in online and accessible anytime and from off campus.

For best results do a search using keywords or phrases in a subject database to find references to scholarly articles. Use the suggested databases below to find scholarly journal articles.

A few tips:

• Look at all writings by a relevant author and co-authors.
• Explore the bibliography of a relevant article for more articles.
• When a database gives you an option, always limit to scholarly (or academic or peer reviewed) journals.
• Discover if the articles have been cited since publication.

Scroll further down to Citation Searching for information and examples.

Databases

• Early English Books Online (EEBO)
• Eighteenth Century Journals
• Eighteenth Century Collections Online

• Oxford Scholarship Online

• MLA International Bibliography
• PhilPapers: philosophical research online
• Philosopher's Index

​Canadian sources

• CPI.Q - limit to option Peer Reviewed Journals
• Canadian Business & Current Affairs Database - limit to option Peer Reviewed
• America: History and Life includes N. and S. America

Also consult multidisciplinary databases such as:

• Academic OneFile
• JSTOR
  Tip: To further refine your search results, you can also search within disciplines and/or journal titles.
• Periodicals Archive Online
• Project Muse

Good to know:

1. Within a database, limit your search to scholarly articles when it is appropriate to disregard other resources.
2. Never limit to full-text only as we may subscribe to the journal you find from another vendor. Use the Get it! icon to search for the full text when it is not immediately available.
3. Use available options to search more than one database at a time.
4. Look for the option to set up an RSS feed or to Create an Alert. You are then notified when a new entry is added to the database that meets your search criteria.
5. Use the Interlibrary Loans RACER form to request items not held at Carleton’s library.

Citation Searching
Citation searching will help you identify important journals and articles.

Use Journal Citation Reports to evaluate and compare the impact of scholarly journals. While arts journals are not included in the JCR, data on key social science titles is available. The impact factor (IF) measures the average number of citations to articles published in a journal.

Use Citation Indexes to find if a particular author and/or paper has been cited by other authors.

Web of Science
Select Cited Reference Search from above the search box.
You have the article
"The cultural kindling of spiritual experiences" in Current Anthropology Volume 55, 1 December 2014, Pages S333-S343

Enter the author in cited author box
Cassaniti J* (use surname, first initial and truncation symbol)
Enter year of publication.

From the list, select the article and click on Finish Search at the top of the list.
Results show the article has been cited 22 times - the most recent in 2019.

Note the option Create Alert to be notified of any future citations of this article.

Scopus
Select Author Search from menu bar.
Enter author's name and affiliation if known.
cassaniti J*
Select displayed result. On right hand side all published articles by the author will be listed.Click on article for citing references.

Remember to see if an citing article has itself been cited.

Newspapers

Of possible interest:

• Canadian Illustrated News (1869-1883)
• Globe and Mail: Canada's Heritage from 1844 (1844-2015)

Consult the News guide. For older media coverage, check Historical Archives.