Research Guides: Topic Introductions & Research Overviews: Home

Scholarly Research Summarized for a Wider Audience

These resources are great tools for identifying scholars who write about topics that interest you.

Note for students: If you're writing a paper where you need to cite scholarly articles or books, an article from The Conversation, Knowable Magazine, and other general audience-focused sites won't count as a scholarly source. You'll need to find the original research article or book. A librarian can help you do this!

The Conversation
Articles on popular topics written by scholars with relevant expertise to provide context, background, and analysis.
Knowable Magazine
Knowable Magazine explores the real-world significance of scholarly work through a journalistic lens. Publishes articles, infographics, and comics covering research across many fields. Focuses particularly on the sciences and social sciences.
JSTOR Daily
Daily magazine that contextualizes current events with scholarship found on JSTOR
Journalist's Resource: Research on Today's News Topics
Curates relevant research for understanding topics in the news
Scholars Strategy Network
Jargon-free summaries of scholarly research
Aeon
Essays on current topics from scholars and experts across fields

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Quick Introductions

Very Short Introductions
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Launched by Oxford University Press in 1995, Very Short Introductions offer concise introductions to a diverse range of subject areas from Climate to Consciousness, Game Theory to Ancient Warfare, Privacy to Islamic History, Economics to Literary Theory.

MIT Essential Knowledge series
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Short, readable guides for a non-specialist audience covering topics like plastics, cloud computing, and universal basic income.
What Everyone Needs to Know [book series]
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Series of short introductory books published by Oxford University Press.
Routledge Key Guides
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Provide brief introductions to fifty important concepts or authors

Handbooks, Companions, and Histories

Cambridge Companions Online
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Searchable collection of ebooks on topics in literature, classics, philosophy, religion, culture and music.
Cambridge Histories Online
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Searchable collection of ebooks that provide introductions to history and historical scholarship

Cambridge Elements
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This series of short scholarly books can provide a helpful introduction to a topic
Seminar Studies
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Books in this series provide a synthesis of recent historical research on a topic.

Oxford Handbooks in Political Science
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Complete searchable texts of the Oxford handbooks in political science. Oxford Handbooks in Political Science bring together the world's leading scholars to discuss research and the latest thinking in a range of major topics in political science.

Annotated Bibliographies

Oxford Bibliographies Online
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Includes introductions to each topic area, guides to introductory works, textbooks, guidebooks, journals, reference works etc., and links to useful websites. Bibliographies are browseable by subject area and keyword searchable.

Review Articles

Annual Reviews
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A searchable collection of critical review articles capturing the current understanding of a topic, including what is well supported, what is controversial, and where further research is needed.

Compass Journals
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Review articles on topics in geography, philosophy, history, sociology, literature, religion, and other academic disciplines
Review of Educational Research
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This journal publishes literature reviews on various topics in education.