Background/Reference Sources
Reference materials can be good resources for subject overviews and a means to collect useful keywords. The bibliographies frequently include key texts and thinkers that are associated with a specific subject. To discover more reference materials held in the Stanford Libraries, search Reference Universe, Searchworks, consult with a librarian, or browse the libraries' reference collections.
Tips for using reference sources:
1. Look at the cross-references that many entries provide. These can be helpful in pointing you toward a related or more accurate idea/term.
2. One of the most important elements of any good reference source entry is its bibliography. Take note of the books or articles that the entry's author deems elementary to understanding the individual or idea.
Selected Subject Search Terms using the Searchworks Catalogue
- Advertising
- Advertising - Psychological Aspects
- Art (Media OR Consumer OR Advertising OR Marketing)/Social Sciences
- Body Language
- Branding
- Commerce United States
- Consumer Behavior
- Consumption Economics
- Dialogue
- Discourse Analysis
- Internet Marketing
- Marketing
- Nonverbal Communication
- Popular Culture
- Persuasion (Psychology)
- Persuasive Communication
Databases
"Article citations and some full text articles in business-related publications. Includes the Wall Street journal."
"Provides full-text for over 4,650 scholarly publications, more than 3,600 of them peer-reviewed. Includes topics in the social sciences, humanities, general science, education and most areas of academic study. Abstracts and indexing provided for 8,200 journals in the collection. Coverage is from 1965 to the present."
"Provides full-text information and perspectives from over 600 U.S. and over 700 international sources, each with its own distinctive focus offering diverse viewpoints on local, regional and world issues. Date coverage varies with individual newspaper. Also includes thousands of broadcast transcripts, newswires, video clips, and news blogs."
"Articles on art and related disciplines from periodicals, yearbooks, and museum bulletins published throughout the world. There is full-text coverage for selected periodicals."
"Art publications, including important yearbooks and select museum bulletins, from around the globe, reflecting coverage provided from 1929 through 1984."
"Full text coverage for over 10,000 scholarly business journals and other sources, including full text for more than 1,150 peer-reviewed business publications. Coverage includes virtually all subject areas related to business."
"Contains bibliographic information from an international selection of publications (including over 2600 journals and books, book reviews, and book chapters) in the fields of economics, political science, sociology, and anthropology."
"Contains citations and summaries of journal articles, book chapters, books, and technical reports in the field of psychology and psychological aspects of related disciplines including medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education, pharmacology, physiology, linguistics, anthropology, business and law."
"Sociological Abstracts abstracts and indexes the international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. The database provides abstracts of journal articles and citations to book reviews drawn from over 1,800+ serials publications, and also provides abstracts of books, book chapters, dissertations, and conference papers."
