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RELG 299: Theoretical Perspectives on the Study of Religion (HC) Fall 2016

Religion 299: Theoretical Perspectives on the Study of Religion (Farneth) Fall 2016

Creating a Search Strategy

Before conducting your search:
  • Consider how your argument might be broken down into keywords or phrases.
  • Compile a list of synonyms for those keywords.  What other terms might scholars use to talk about your topic, and how do these terms reflect the type of argument scholars are making?  (E.g., memory vs. nostalgia) If you are confused about using terms in Religious Studies, check out the ATLA thesaurus option on the ATLA Religion Database   Connect from Bryn Mawr College      Icon     Icon
  • Consider which intersections among your keywords will be useful for searching
  • Identify disciplines that are relevant to your research question.  Also consider the ways in which your question might reside outside traditional disciplines or cut across them.
 
What to look for in your results:
  • Articles that have appeared in peer-reviewed journals or essay collections.  These articles will have been vetted by scholars with knowledge of the topic.
  • While an article's date of publication is no direct measure of its value, you should make sure that an older article's argument has not been superseded by new research or methodologies before relying on it alone.  Recent articles are also useful for their bibliographies, which have up-to-date resources on the same topic.