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Research Guides

Indigenous Studies

This guide is a starting point to find research in Indigenous Studies. It is meant primarily to assist students from the Centre for Indigenous Studies, but may be of use to students looking for Indigenous Research in general.

Searching through Journal Databases

Use a combination of searching through the Catalogue and databases to ensure that you are thoroughly searching through your topic. For a full list of Indigenous Studies resources, please see the Indigenous Studies Subjects A-Z Page.

To find if a journal is peer reviewed, use Ulrichs Web to verify. Journals that are peer reviewed will feature this symbol :

Indigenous Studies Databases

General Databases

Criteria for evaluating scholarly journals

Methods:

Does it employ Indigenous Research Methods?

Author:

Who wrote it?

 

Sources:

Does the author acknowledge his or her sources? How?

 

Content:

Is the content substantial?

Does it appear to be valid and well-researched?

Does it make sense, based on your own background knowledge, or what other articles have to say on the topic?

 

Writing:

Is the language scholarly?

Is the article well written?

Do illustrations and data support the content in a scholarly fashion, or do they appear to be attention-getting, or sensational?

 

Audience:

Who is the article written for?

Is it written for experts and researchers in the field, or for members of the general public?

 

Journal:

Is it published in a scholarly journal?

 

Here are excellent explanations of how to evaluate information sources, and  how to distinguish between scholarly and other periodicals.

 

Get the journal

To access an article from a citation in a database:

  • If you see a [fulltext] link, select it.
  • If you see a Get!it button or SFX button, select it. This will link to the article online, if we have it. If we don't have it online, it will search the library catalogue for you to tell you if we have it in print.

To find an item from a bibliography:

  • Method 1: Go to the library home page and enter your article title in the search box. It may help to put quotes on the title. This should find your article if it is online. 
  • Method 2: Look up the name of the journal that the article is published in, in the library catalogue, to find out if we have it in print or online. Write down the name of the library, and the journal's call number in that library. Make sure we have the volume that you want.