Research Guides: GBST 151: Global Questions and Frameworks: Finding Secondary Sources

Background Information

There are numerous ways to do background research on global issues, both current and historic.
Some lesser-practiced ways include:

(Safely) joining or browsing online communities or what writer Yancey Strickler calls "Dark Forests".
- You can find these somewhat hidden communities in places like Reddit, Substack, Fandom.com, or Are.na.
Reading, watching, or listening to current news, and going down rabbit holes.
Seeking specialized handbooks, or encylopedias.
Watching documentaries from different countries. Following up by looking more at featured experts, or other coverage.
- Pro tip: request items through Interlibrary Loan

Finding Books and Articles

Education

Infrastructure DEvelopment

Conservation/Environment

Energy

medicine

developing countries

colonialism

refugees/ migration

Politics

Global Scholarship

The academic publishing market is saturated with British and American scholarship. Other scholars writing in english have less visibility on the academic publishing market. Here are some strategies and repositories for finding scholarship from around the world:

Best Bet Databases

Project MUSE
Provides access to academic journals in the fields of humanities and social sciences.
International Bibliography of the Social Sciences
Publication Dates: 1951-Present
Includes references to scholarly articles, books, book chapters, and reviews for the social sciences. Good international coverage.
American Bibliography of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies
Publication Dates: 1990-Present
Provides summaries of North American scholarship on Eastern Europe, Russia, and the former Soviet Union. Includes articles, books, books chapters, book reviews, and more.
Sociological Abstracts
Publication Dates: 1952-Present
Includes summaries of scholarly articles published in sociology journals and related fields (linguistics, economics, anthropology, law).
ProQuest
Searches across a wide variety of types of sources including scholarly journals, magazines, historical and current newspapers, dissertations, and more. Coverage is multidisciplinary. Great place to start a research project.
EconLit
Publication Dates: 1886-Present
Contains summaries of articles, books, and working papers on all aspects of economics.
PAIS International
Publication Dates: 1915-Present
Includes brief information about articles, books, websites, and government documents that cover global public policy, social issues, and the social sciences.