Tips for RS7 Research Paper
Fall 2007

You are required to write a 7-8 page research paper on the religious tradition of someone in your family. Your TA has given you more explicit information on what the paper must include; this website is designed to help you find it.

STEP ONE: REFERENCE BOOKS
Encyclopedias give broad overviews of topics. Encyclopedias covering topics in religion, like the ones listed below, will:

• provide background information on your religious tradition
• identify topics of special interest in your religious tradition, and
• list suggested sources for further reading

Davidson Library holds many encyclopedias covering topics in religion, including:

• Encyclopedia of the American religious experience : studies of traditions and movements / Charles H. Lippy and Peter W. Williams, editors
  New York : Scribner, c1988
  Main Reference BL2525 .E53 1988
• Encyclopedia of religion / Lindsay Jones, editor in chief
  Detroit : Macmillan Reference USA, c2005
  Main Reference BL31 .E46 2005 (15 vols)
• Encyclopedia of religion / Mircea Eliade, editor in chief
  New York : Macmillan ;London : Collier Macmillan, c1987-
  Main Reference BL31 .E46 1987 (16 vols. There is also a copy in the RS departmental library in HSSB)
• Encyclopedia of Christianity / edited by John Bowden
  New York : Oxford University Press, 2005
  Main Reference BR95 .E47 2005
• World Christian encyclopedia : a comparative survey of churches and religions in the modern world / David B. Barrett, George T. Kurian, Todd M. Johnson
  New York : Oxford University Press, 2001
  Main Reference BR157 .W67 2001 (2 vols)
• Encyclopedia of Protestantism / Hans J. Hillerbrand, editor
  New York : Routledge, 2004
  Main Reference BX4811.3 .E53 2004
• The encyclopedia of African and African-American religions / Stephen D. Glazier, editor
  New York : Routledge, 2001
  Main Reference BL2462.5 .E53 2001
• Gale encyclopedia of multicultural America / edited by Jeffrey Lehman
  Detroit : Gale Group, c2000
  Ethnic Gender Studies Reference E184.A1 G14 2000 (3 vols)
• The Shengold Jewish encyclopedia / edited by Mordecai Schreiber
  Rockville, Md. : Schreiber Pub., c2003
  Main Reference DS102.8 .S545 2003
• The new encyclopedia of Judaism / editor-in-chief, Geoffrey Wigoder
  New York : New York University Press, c2002
  Main Reference BM50 .E63 2002
• Encyclopedia of religious rites, rituals, and festivals / Frank A. Salamone, editor
  New York : Routledge, 2004
  Main Reference BL31 .E47 2004

Remember to include the reference book(s) in your bibliography even if you only use them for the lists of suggested readings.

STEP TWO: SEARCH TERMS
Your encyclopedia article(s) will give you ideas for search terms (words) that you can use in searching the library’s catalog and other databases for information on your topic. For your “Introduction to American Religion” paper, make sure you know the alternate names for the religious tradition you are researching. Remember that the Episcopal Church is also called the Anglican Church and the Church of England. If you are researching Islam, you also need to use the term Muslim.

Are you looking for ecumenicalism? History? Rituals? Liturgy? Take some time to reflect on what you read in the reference books and plan where your paper is going.

Be sure to truncate your terms when appropriate. In the following databases the * is the truncation symbol. This means that if you type buddhis* you will find buddhism and buddhist.

STEP THREE: FINDING SOURCES
Reserve Books
We have placed at least one book that covers the history or traditions of most major religious traditions on reserve at the circulation desk. You can check out one of these books for two hours at a time as you prepare to write your paper. To find these books, go to the Library’s home page, roll your cursor over “Library Services” and click on “Course Reserves.” Then click on “Pegasus – Current Course Reserves” and enter the course number “RELI007”.

Books
Use Pegasus to find books for your topic.

• Do KEYWORD searches
  • example: wicca* or catholic* liturgy
• Click "words as phrase" if you want an exact phrase
  • example: church of latter day saints

When you look up a book, make sure you look at the SUBJECT HEADINGS to see if there are other terms you could use to describe your topic.

Articles
While books often cover the bigger picture on topics, journal articles often focus in on one element of a subject. Finding journal articles is usually a two-step process. First, you will use an index to identify articles on your topic, and then you will use UC e-Links and the Library’s catalog and electronic journals list to locate the articles themselves.

To find articles, first you must use an article index and then you have to find the actual article itself. To access these databases from off campus, you must go through the proxy server. From the Library's home page, select RESEARCH then ARTICLE INDEXES & DATABASES to find the following databases.

Expanded Academic ASAP

• Keyword search to find articles on your topic
  • examples: presbyterian
    (wicca* or witchcraft) AND (united states or america)
• LIMIT to refereed publications (this gives you scholarly journals)
• Results are either full-text articles, abstracts, or citations
  • If the result is an ABSTRACT or a CITATION, use UC eLinks to check if UCSB has the journal

America: History & Life

• Keyword search to find articles on your topic
  • example: wicca* -- then look at your results to see if there is a better term, for example witchcraft
  • example: presbyterian church and tradition*
• Use UC eLinks to check if UCSB has the journal

ATLA Religion

• Keyword search to find articles on your topic
  • example: buddhis* AND (united states or america) AND (tradition* or history)
• Use UC eLinks to check if UCSB has the journal

STEP FOUR: GET HELP!
Ask for help when you need it. You will find a reference librarian at the Davidson Library main reference desk the following times: Sunday 1pm-9pm; Monday-Thursday 9am-9pm; Friday 9am-5pm; Saturday 1pm-5pm. You can also contact the Religious Studies Librarian during her office hours on Tuesdays 12:00-1:45pm in HSSB 3030 (the Religious Studies departmental library).