Track the scholarly conversation by using the sources you've already found! If you've found a few relevant articles or books, you can often use those to find more.

Use subject headings or subject terms

Library catalogs and databases often use controlled vocabularies to describe the subjects of books and articles. This means they describe what the books and articles are about using standardized terminology, so resources on the same topic are connected--even if they use different words to describe the same ideas. This allows you to use one source to find related sources.

Subject headings in OneSearch

If you find a book in OneSearch that looks useful, select the title of the book to see the full information, then look in the "Details" section to see what subject headings have been assigned to the book. Do any of the subject headings seem like a good match for your research topic? These subject headings are linked, so you can select a subject to search for all of the other books in the library that have been assigned that same subject.

Subject terms in databases

Many article databases assign subject terms that work in the same way as subject headings for books work in OneSearch. If you find a useful article, look at the detailed record for the article, find the subject terms, and follow any of those links that match your topic to find related articles. Here is an example from an EBSCOhost database:

Follow the citations

Scholarly books and articles are part of a conversation. They will cite sources that they draw on, and may be cited by other authors writing on the same topic. Following the trail of citations is one way to find more sources on the same topic.

Cited sources

If you've found a relevant book, chapter, article, or reference entry, does the author cite other sources that look like they would be useful to your research? Look for a bibliography, reference list, or list of works cited. Following these citations lets you read backwards into what was previously said in that scholarly conversation.

If you see any sources that look interesting, you can search to see if the library has access. If we don't have access, and if they really seem promising, you can request copies from another library. See:

• How do I find a specific article?
• How do I find a specific book?
• If I have a citation, how do I know what it's for or how to find it?

Citing sources

If you've found some useful sources, you can also read forward in the scholarly conversation by searching for later sources that cite the ones you've found. Google Scholar is one tool that allows you to do this--look for a link that says "Cited by."

For more options for this kind of search, see: How do I find who else has cited a work?