Reference Sources for Background Information

Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Encyclopedia of Ethics - Clapp Ref BJ63 .E45 2001

Finding Books

Wellesley College Catalog - Use the Library's catalog to find books and other materials (journal titles, NOT journal articles) we have here at Wellesley. Remember to start with "keyword" searching if you are beginning to research a topic. This will give you a broad range of results. Then, when you find something relevent, see what subject headings are listed in that item's record. You can click on these subject headings to find more useful items. Note any subheadings. Some subject headings to try using a "subject" search are:

• Agent (Philosophy)
• Free will and determinism
• Motivation Psychology

WorldCat - Use WorldCat to find books and other materials (NOT journal articles) at Wellesley and at libraries around the world. Use the catalog using the searching suggestions listed above. If you find a book you want that Wellesley does not own, use the ILL link within WorldCat to request the book.

Finding Articles

The Wellesley College Library subscribes to many databases that contain information on thousands of articles and other sources of information on a topic. Some of these databases link to the full article online while others are simply an index or contain only abstracts. Where full-text is not offered you must look up the journal title in the Wellesley College Library catalog to determine if we have the issue that matches the article citation you are looking for. If we do not have the journal in our library, you can request the article through Interlibrary Loan.

Suggested databases for this class:

For the following databases start with a keyword search and see what the subject terms are for any relevant articles you find. Look for an option to mark records, email records to yourself, or to link to Interlibrary Loan from within the database.

Academic Search Premier (off-campus link) and Expanded Academic ASAP - general all-purpose databases. Index and abstracts from 1980; selected full text. On the results page, click on the Academic tab to get peer-reviewed articles.

JSTOR - Articles on all subjects (but not from the past 3-5 years). Tip: To limit your search to subject-relevent journals, do an Advanced Search and select only the disciplines you want to search (such as Philosophy and/or Psychology).

Philosopher's Index - 1940-current. An index database containing abstracts of journal articles, books, book chapters, and book reviews. Once you have searched and found something interesting, click on the button to check and see if Wellesley owns it in full-text. If not, you can then click on the ILL link to request it from another library.

Project Muse - Full-text articles from scholarly journals in the humanities and social sciences.

PsycINFO - Citations to journal articles, book chapters, books & dissertations from the international scholarly literature of psychology and psychological aspects of related disciplines, 1840 to present.

Web of Science - Interdisciplinary subject searching of scholarly articles in the social sciences (1956 to present) physical & life sciences (1900 to present), and arts & humanities (1975 to present). Search for articles that cite known journal articles or books.

Use our e-resources a-z list for databases on other related topics.

Internet Links

NOTE: Use the following criteria to evaluate any websites:

• Who is the author of the information?
• Can you find information about the author? What are his/her credentials?
• How current is the information? Is there a "last updated" date?
• Who is the intended audience for the information?
• Is the content objective or is it coming from a certain viewpoint?
• Is the information advocating a cause?

For more information on how to evaluate web pages see our search the web page.

Ethics Etc. - A blog "for discussing contemporary philosophical issues in normative ethics, metaethics, moral epistemology, moral psychology, applied ethics, social and political philosophy, law, and other related areas." Search for discussions on specific topics by selecting a subject listed under "categories." Ethics Etc. includes links to other philosophy blogs & journals, and suggests relevant books for further reading.

Remember: if you find the full text online, you must cite the online source. Look for information within our Wellesley databases, or electronic books, on how to cite what you find.

Find some helpful resources for citing your sources on the library's Citing Sources page.

Look at the Research Resources for Philosophy page to find more philosophy web resources.

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