South Asian and Indian History

Getting Started

Welcome

Your assignments at university are an invitation to join a scholarly conversation by exploring topics in depth, formulating a unique research question, examining the research of others along with primary sources, building an argument, and drawing your own conclusions. A good research topic is one that sparks your interest and allows you to ask new questions in order to find meaningful answers. This guide is intended to help you get started.

Pick a research topic

Read your assignment instructions carefully
Pick a research topic that interests you and meets the assignment criteria
Identify the key concepts of your research topic
- If you need extra help, click on Choosing an essay topic
Do some background reading on your topic using Wikipedia
- Using Wikipedia wisely (video)

Use guides, dictionaries, and encyclopedias to find authoritative definitions

Finding Journal Articles and Dissertations

Search Omni, the library's main search box to easily find peer-reviewed journal articles on any topic. Remember to refine your search. If you need help, use Omni Search Tips.

You can also search databases by subject to find journal articles. They offer many advanced search features and search results tend to be more precise than a Google search.

Key Databases for Journal Articles:

Additional Databases:

Dissertations and Theses

Dissertations and Theses Global

Finding and Using Primary Sources

Begin with:

Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Sources

Searching for primary sources:

Search your topic (or historical person of interest) using Omni, the library's main search box to find primary sources (or reproductions) in our collection. Keyword searches that include the following terms will identify primary materials most of the time.

Diar* (for diary or diaries)
Correspondence
Letters
Memoir
Personal narrative
Recollections
Reminiscences
Journal
Sources

Other search tips:

Use bibliographies and footnotes of secondary sources on your topic to help identify primary source material.
Useful book: History beyond the text; a student's guide to approaching alternative sources
Original documents can also be found by searching our archival collections or by contacting the Archives and Special Collections (ASC) staff for help.

Historical Newspaper Databases