Research Guides: Religious Studies: REL 101

Find Scholarly Sources

Article Databases

JSTOR
Provides access to content across all disciplines. Search or browse books, journals, images, and primary sources.
ProQuest Central Premium

Provides access to thousands of full-text scholarly journals, trade and professional titles, newspapers, magazines, dissertations, working papers, case studies, and market reports. Content covers all major subject areas, including business, health and medical, social sciences, arts and humanities, education, science and technology, and religion.
Sociology & Social Sciences Collection
Provides access to databases covering the international literature in the social sciences, including politics, sociology, social services, anthropology, criminology and education. Discipline standard abstracting and indexing databases such as Sociological Abstracts and the International Bibliography of Social Sciences with their proprietary vocabularies provide an interface for comprehensive literature searches. Includes full text from over 500 social science journals. Coverage: 1951 - current.
Project Muse
Provides full-text access to approximately 250 journals published by 40 academic presses in the arts and humanities, social sciences, and mathematics.

Find Books Using MUSCAT Plus

MUSCAT Plus
MUSCAT Plus searches for books, journal articles, media, and more in Musselman Library and beyond.

Background Information

Gale Reference eBooks
Provides a database of encyclopedias and reference sources for research. Coverage include the Arts, Business, Education, the Environment, History, Literature, Medicine, Multicultural Studies, Religion, Science and Social Science. 2000 – present.

Additional Resources

Evaluate Information Sources

Evaluating Sources: Think critically about information sources that you use. Here are a few things to consider when evaluating sources…

Who wrote it and why?

What qualifies the author(s) to write about the topic?
Who is the intended audience?
What is the purpose -- to inform / entertain / persuade / summarize / report new findings?
What is the context in which it was written?

How does it support your research question?

What do you know now that you didn’t know before reading it?
What does the source argue or demonstrate that none of your other sources do?
What questions remain or what new questions are raised when considering the information?

What makes it reliable?

What evidence did the author use to support his/her claims?
Have other people cited or referenced it?
How might someone dismiss it?
Who had to approve or review it before it could be published?

Scholarly vs. Popular Sources

For much of the research that you do at Gettysburg College, professors will request that you use scholarly articles (from peer-reviewed journals, rather than popular magazines and websites.) If you need help telling the difference, see this guide on the library website.

Religious Studies: REL 101

Have questions? Ask a librarian!

Citation Help

Chicago Manual of Style

Who What Why

Find Scholarly Sources

Evaluate Information Sources