Philosophy: Senior Thesis Writers

Gather Sources

• If Musselman Library does not have the article or book you need, you can request it from another library through Interlibrary Loan. Usually it takes 1-2 days to receive an article or book chapter, and 1 week to receive a book.
• If you think a book would be a good addition to our collection, request that the library purchase a book using the Request a Purchase form.

Start Searching Early

• Research tools have different uses, so check in many places. For example, Philosopher's Index and PhilPapers are focused on philosophy, while ProQuest Central is a more general database that includes articles and journals related to philosophy. MUSCAT Plus is the library's catalog and way to cast a broad net to start your research, while WorldCat searches many libraries across the world.
• Save time by consulting reference materials for finding background information on your topic before you get too deep. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the Oxford Companion to Philosophy, GVRL, and Wikipedia can be good places to start.

Browse the Collection and Mine Bibliographies

• Browse the book collection in relevant call number areas to find additional titles. You can often find a lot by finding one book that interests you and looking at the books surrounding it. You can browse ebooks with nearby call numbers at the bottom of a book record in Muscat Plus.
• Use bibliographies at the end of articles/chapters to lead you to additional sources. Use what has been done before you.

Organize Your Sources and Cite Along the Way

• Consult your style guide often to check formatting, citation styles, etc.
• Use a citation manager (such as Zotero or RefWorks) to organize your sources. This will save you time.

Ask for Help 

• Schedule a meeting with a librarian to get one-on-one help. These are 30-minutes and can be in-person or via Zoom.
• Prefer email? Send your question to ask@gettysburg.edu.

Reference Works

Encyclopedias, companions, or specialized dictionaries in Philosophy are perfect starting points. Find out biographical information on a philosopher; key dates, socio/political history of a time period, important events, names of important scholars in the field, and a helpful bibliography for additional reading.

Philosophy

Interdisciplinary

Interlibrary Loan requests are now integrated into our Muscat Plus search. You will place your request through Muscat Plus by selecting the form to request a physical copy or a scanned chapter. From there, ILL staff can monitor requests and will redirect requests if needed.

Subject Headings for Philosophy

Philosophy covers a wide range of topics, so keyword searches alone in Muscat Plus may not find everything.

In addition to keyword searching, note the subjects (like tags) at the bottom of book records.

• They may be broad:  Philosophy, Modern - 20th century or Philosophy, African
• Or, narrow:  Architecture - Philosophy or Color (Philosophy)
• Or, related to two topics:  Music and philosophy
• Or, slightly less intuitive:  Belief and Doubt

Example Screenshot:

Philosophy

Interdisciplinary

Thinking about how to organize a large research project? You can use the following tools to help you track topics within a single article or across all of your research, helping you make connections and find gaps!

Styles:

MLA

APA

Chicago (1) (2)