Collins Memorial Library: GQS 494: Gender Research Seminar: Articles

Synthesizing Sources

Your literature review should move beyond basic summarizing to focus on a critical analysis of the works you've reviewed and their relationship to your research question.

There are many ways for you to organize your literature review - chronologically, by thematic categories, methodological approach, major debates/conflict, or the position/argument of the author(s). Avoid simple lists and discussing each of your sources individually, and only use the chronological method if there is a clear chronological path of development in the research on your topic.

Practice synthesizing your sources thematically using the matrix below.

Synthesis Matrix
Click on "File," then "Make a copy" to fill out the spreadsheet using your own sources.

Key Resource

Gender Studies Database
Covers the full spectrum of gender-engaged scholarship inside and outside academia. Several thousand links to freely available and indexed full-text articles and documents on the Internet are available. Source documents include professional journals, conference papers, books, book chapters, government reports, discussion and working papers, theses & dissertations and other sources.

Subject-Specific Databases

Depending on your topic and your angle, you may wish to search additional subject databases.

America: History & Life This link opens in a new window
U.S. and Canadian history from prehistory to the present.
Communication & Mass Media Complete
Provides access to research in areas related to communication and mass media.
Family Studies Abstracts
Covers areas related to family studies, including marriage, divorce, family therapy, and more.
Film & Television Literature Index
An index to film and television literature.
MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
Literature, linguistics, and related areas.
Political Science Complete
Scholarly work in political science with a worldwide focus.
PsycINFO
Main database for psychology and related behavioral sciences.
Religion Database
Covers formal theological studies of major religions, as well as the most recent trends and scholarly thought.
SocINDEX
Offers coverage of sociology, encompassing all sub-disciplines, related areas of study, including topics such as abortion, ethnic & racial studies, gender studies, marriage & family, and more.
Sociological Abstracts
Scholarly work written by and of interest to sociologists.

E-Journal Collections

These e-journal collections provide access to many journals in GQS, but they are limited in scope and coverage compared to subject databases. In most cases, it's better to search subject databases to identify articles, and then use Primo Search to access the materials in these e-journal collections.

JSTOR
An interdisciplinary journal archive. It includes archives of over one thousand leading academic journals across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, as well as select monographs and other materials valuable for academic work.
Project MUSE
Interdisciplinary database includes books and articles from scholarly publishers with focus on humanities and social science.

Interdisciplinary Databases (The Big Ones)

Academic Search Premier
A multidisciplinary database containing full text journal, magazine & newspaper articles, many from peer-reviewed titles. This scholarly collection covers information in nearly every area of academic study.
Google Scholar
Provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources including: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, patents, legal opinions and federal & state court opinions.
ProQuest Central
Covering more than 160 subject areas, ProQuest Central is a large aggregated database of periodical content. It features a diversified mix of content including scholarly journals, trade publications, magazines, books, newspapers, reports and videos.
Social Science Premium Collection (ProQuest)
Provides access to multiple databases covering the international literature in the social sciences, including politics, sociology, social services, anthropology, criminology and education.

Google Scholar Cited Reference Search

Google Scholar can help you find articles which have cited an article that you have found. Frequent citation is often (but not always!) a marker for a particularly influential scholarly work.

Step 1: When looking at search results, check for the 'Cited by X' link underneath each result. That will tell you how many subsequent articles (that Google Scholar is aware of) have cited this particular article or book.

Step 2: Click that link, and you will be taken to a new set of results, all of which have cited the original article, which will still be listed at the top of the page.

General Database Search Tips

Try these strategies to become a better, more efficient searcher -- and help you find articles that you can actually use:

Build your search vocabulary -- keep a running list of key words, phrases, concepts, synonyms, and any related terms or ideas that you find.
Use advanced search features -- narrow your search with "AND," expand your search with "OR," or search in specified fields (i.e., author, title, publication, abstract).
Use search limits -- control the types of results you get (academic journals? language?) and how they are displayed (date? relevance?) so that you're only looking at results you can use.
Try multiple searches and evaluate your results -- try to figure out why you got the results you did, and adjust your search until you get closer to results you can use.
Use database descriptors -- once you find an article that looks good, see what descriptors or "subject headings" were assigned to it in the database. You can use these to search only for articles that have the same descriptors attached.

Tipasa: Interlibrary Loan

If your article is not available at Collins Library, you've got another option for getting it. Use Tipasa, our interlibrary loan service.

Tipasa is linked to your library account so you'll need to log in to use it.

Once you are logged in, either go directly to Tipasa and manually enter the information, or, if you're using a database, look for a shortcut link to automatically fill out the form:

Allow at least a week for the article to come. If your article is delivered in electronic format, you'll receive an email with a link to follow as soon as it's arrived.