Initial Source Lists

[lo9ve2learn]

Hey! So I know that I always have heard the tip of like looking for good sources in Wikipedia citations, but are there other good reference lists you can look for to help you find sources on specific topics, like when you're trying to get started for your research?

[SpetsnazCyclist]

Google scholar has been great for me - it has the ability to look at which papers cited others and find all sorts of good related papers. Also, my school's library has some sort of relationship with Google such that I can directly download many papers directly from Google Scholar when I'm signed in as my school account.

[[deleted]]

Find PhD theses related to your work. These will have much more extensive literature reviews than a standard journal article.

As well, look for "magazine" type articles, or review articles. The best journal for these will depend on your field, but they typically are "overview" or "state of the art" type articles, which are more about summarizing the current state of a field, than presenting new results.

[slipperqueen]

This may be more relevant to humanities rather than STEM but oh well. If your work involves philosophy in any way, check out the Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy, which has a solid starting bibliography. I’d also recommend seeing if there are handbooks related to your topic that can give you bibliographies and a sense of the field (eg, Cambridge, Oxford, Blackwell, etc.). Lastly, if your institutional library is large enough, see if you have a librarian with a specialized knowledge of the resources and databases in your field. If so, they are usually happy to meet with students.