Philosophy Students, I'm your library liaison. If you've got questions, please ask!
Please reach out with questions!
IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS as you're using these library resources:
- If you need quick, immediate help: Use the Chat or Call options on the Ask a Librarian page.
- If you have a little time or a more intricate question: Email me (Susan Taylor at setaylor@bsu.edu), describing your topic and what you're having trouble with. I'll write you back as soon as I can.
- There are really lots of ways you can get help. Just reach out!
Welcome
Welcome!
This guide is for students in Sarah Vitale's PHIL 240 class.
Your upcoming research paper requires that you use 3 sources. "You may use one or more sources from the syllabus, but you must also include at least one peer-reviewed journal articles or published book that is not on the syllabus."
This guide is meant to provide you with options for finding sources not on your syllabus that are also academic in nature.
Recommended databases
- Philosopher's Index This link opens in a new windowPhilosopher's Index is a key database to scholarly sources in philosophy and related disciplines.
Because Philosopher's Index has a much narrower focus than OneSearch, it is significantly smaller. But you can trust that everything you find from searching in it has some relation to philosophy or ethics, and the vast majority of the articles are scholarly in nature. And it can be nicer to have a smaller pool of records to go through.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowJSTOR allows you to search across approximately 2,000 journal titles from more than 50 disciplines. It contains complete backfiles of scholarly journals starting with the first issues, many of which date back from the 1800s. Although the majority of titles do not have the most recent 3 to 5 years available in full text, there are some which have the current issues available.
Everything in JSTOR will be scholarly in nature, and also available to be read in full-text. Note that you can limit your results to articles published in Philosophy journals -- a great way to get that philosophical perspective.
- OneSearch This link opens in a new windowOneSearch is a tool that cross searches much of the content our databases and other online sources. You can search across many collections in one search box, simplifying the resource discovery process. It includes topics related to philosophy and ethics.
Because OneSearch is multi-disciplinary, covering the sciences, social sciences, humanities, etc., searching in OneSearch allows you to search for sources touching on your topic from a wide variety of perspectives. This can be great -- and sometimes overwhelming. Also note that OneSearch allows you to search for both scholarly and more popular treatment of your topic.
Find It @ Ball State: Helping you find the full text of the title you want
When you'
re using a database, and can't find a link to the full text of an article, look for a Find It @ Ball State button.
Find It helps you to search the Libraries' other databases and subscriptions to see if the full text is available through another resource.
- If it is available, Find It provides a link to the text of the article.
- If it cannot find the full-text, Find It provides a link to Interlibrary Loan so that you can request that we get a copy of the article from another library.
To use Find It, click on the red Find It @ Ball State button.
If we DO have full text access to the article, a page will be displayed with options for access under "Full Text Format Options." The typical options are:
- PDF: the file format reflecting the formatting for a printed page
- Link: taking you to the webpage version of the article
If we do NOT have immediate full text access to the article, the OneSearch record for the article will be displayed.
- Look under "Links" for "Request this item with InterLibrary Loan / ILLiad."
- Click there, and log in with your Ball State username and password.
- More information about placing an Interlibrary Loan request.
