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Michael Schwartz Library

A General Guide: Philosophy

A guide for Philosophy students and faculty.

InterLibrary Loan

Use Interlibrary Loan Services to get articles you need that are not in the Michael Schwartz Library or available online.

Choosing Search Terms

+ Think of synonyms or similar words that convey the same meaning

+ Look at related terms that are displayed when searching a database to see which words are most commonly used for that topic/concept

+ If you don't get many relevant results in one database, try a different one

+ When you locate a very relevant article, use the terms from that article and its references

+ Use AND, OR, & NOT to connect search terms

+ To be more specific, search only in the TITLE field

 

Core Philosophy Research Databases

The first three databases can be searched simultaneously by clicking on the choose databases link in one of the databases and choosing the other two.

Additional Research Databases

More Research Databases

Research Databases available via the Michael Schwartz Library are listed in Alphabetical Order by Title and grouped by Subject Category. If you do not find what you need in the Research Databases listed above, then please try others.

Peer-Reviewed Articles

Peer-reviewed articles are also known as "scholarly" or "refereed" articles.  Before being accepted for publication in a journal, they have been reviewed by a panel of experts in that field or on that topic. Peer-reviewed articles are the best available.

A search in Academic Search Complete and other select research databases can be limited to peer-reviewed journal articles by checking off the "Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals" box under "Limit your results."

Another way to determine if an article is peer-reviewed is by checking the journal, not article, title in Ulrich's International Periodical Directory. Enter the journal title and if a referee shirt is shown in the listing, it is refereed or peer-reviewed.