I wrote much of my course work on a mechanical typewriter and I learned the ropes of academic literature search by being a student assistant in our faculty library, attributing keywords and preparing card indexes of incoming books and journal issues. What can I say? That world seems to have gone, but the principles still run through our profession. But since googling seemed to have made searches so easy, the art of bibliographing is now hardly ever taught and the word “bibliographing” is listed as rare. In what follows, I want to compensate for the lack of instructions by providing a bit of advice how to search for primary and secondary literature.
Don’t start too soon! – It might sound odd, but my primary advice is that you shouldn’t start searching for literature too soon. I can never follow this advice, but I actually think that restraining yourself until you’ve worked out a draft proposal for the kind of research you want to do, helps you in sticking to your actual thoughts and doesn’t make you question the legitimacy of your own thoughts too soon. My advice is to wait till you have an actual research question (to be refined later) that actually gives you a clear and sufficiently narrow scope for determining proper keywords to search for.
Searching for primary literature. – Even if you don’t speak the language in question, always take at least a look at the original text in the form of a critical edition. This gives you information on how the text was actually established, whether there are variants or emendations and such like. A text is never a given. And you should be aware that it’s been produced by people with certain aims in mind. The latest critical edition should provide the most faithful text that you can actually quote and reference in your work. So even if you work with some outdated online version, make sure to reference the work in question in keeping with the latest critical edition.
How do you find a proper critical edition? – One way is to do an online search and look at scholarly pages. It might be the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP) or some historian of philosophy working on the author. Begin by checking the pertinent bibliographies. If that doesn’t yield results, check for recent secondary literature and see what’s being quoted. (Note that the SEP, while a great tool, often merely comprises anglophone literature, shunning entire research traditions in other languages.)
Translations. – When using translations into your native language, make sure to check several ones. Unlike critical editions, translations often come with very different aims. First of all, be aware that a translation is to some extent the production of a new text that might – for various reasons be more or less close to the original. Most importantly, translations establish their own terminological traditions that are handed down in some quarters but not in others. Finding your way requires you to check what the translator says about the rationale behind the translation in question.
Searching for secondary literature. – Besides using the proper critical edition it’s the command of the relevant secondary literature that can make you stand out as a diligent reader and scholar. Honestly, checking the bibliography of a piece tells me quickly whether someone’s done the required work. Anyway, the first step for you should be narrowing down a list of keywords. That’s why a proper research proposal is crucial. Make sure to bring down your list of keywords to the actual aspects you’re working on:
- A straightforward approach is this: Insert all the keywords in your research question or thesis.
- You might even put in the title of your own work in the search engine. So if you search for something on Locke on language, check “Locke on language” (with quotation marks!) first.
- Then try those keywords in different languages (you master).
- Then try inserting key phrases or passages from sections in the texts you’re working on (again, with quotation marks!). This way, you’ll find works that discuss the same stuff as you. Try the original and translations.
- Also think of cognates and related terms to the keywords you’re searching. Often, it might make a difference whether you’re searching for “sentence” or “proposition”.
- Try also inserting pertinent scholars or related authors with the pertinent keywords.
Obviously, there are many more ways. What’s important is to keep a balance between systametic keyword-related and spontaneous association-related searches. Often, crucial impulses result from random results.
Kinds of sources. – What you’ll find this way, will vastly differ: from scholarly lit erature to blog posts to videos etc. When exploring, anything might be helpful. When writing up your piece, make sure to assess whether what you’ve found is up to standard. Scholarly articles are fine. Often, blog posts and videos might be equally fine. To refine your own bibliography, make sure to check the bibliographies of the works you’ve found. And don’t forget that there are even professional and published bibliographies. In any case, when searching with AI tools, always make sure that the actual source exists.
Engines. – Obviously, there are different search engines (even on google, google books, google scholar etc. will yield different results) and databases of libraries, of research institutions, and even of individual scholars. Make sure to figure out patterns of results you get with those and use them accordingly.
Serendipity in libraries. – Finally, don’t forget that the crucial thought that might help you might be in a place you’re not actually searching. When I started my searches in the library back in the day, I often realised that some crucial idea was not in the book I had singled out from the shelf but in the book right beside it. This kind of serendipity sometimes got me further than a methodical search.
Ultimately, the point is that literature search is something worth of attention in its own right. Here, I’ve only scratched the surface. If you have further tipps, please put them in the comments.
Handling Ideas 