Introduction
This subject guide highlights some key discipline resources to get you started with study and research.
- Refer to the New Students Library Guide for everything you need to know about Library services and resources.
- Build your researching, reading and writing skills with the Research Essentials Library Guide.
- Streamline your access to online resources with the Library's quick access tools.
Encyclopedias
Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy / edited by Publication Date: 2010Covers all areas of philosophy in the Middle Ages and part of the Renaissance, ranging from 500 to 1500 CE. It contains general entries on medieval philosophers and medieval philosophies and on the key terms and concepts in the subject area, but it also provides more in-depth details and analyses of particular theories.
Encyclopedia of Philosophy / edited by Publication Date: 2005English-language reference source for philosophy," has been the cornerstone of the philosophy reference shelf. Lauded for its clear and accessible presentation of wide-ranging philosophical subjects, the Encyclopedia has earned its place as a first-stop resource for general readers, students and educators.
Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy / edited by Edward CraigISBN: 9780415073103The largest and most comprehensive resource available for all those involved in the study of philosophy. It is a trusted source of quality information, providing access to over 2,800 articles edited for level and consistency by subject experts and regularly updated. An ideal reference source for philosophy, politics, psychology, economics, anthropology, religion and literature.
- Oxford ReferenceOxford Reference is the home of Oxford’s quality reference publishing. The collection provides quality, up-to-date reference content at the click of a button. The University of Melbourne subscribes to selected titles from this large collection of materials.
- Oxford Bibliographies OnlineProvides short, focused overviews of a wide range of topics including Philosophy, also pointing you to key works and further recommended readings.
- Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyFree peer-reviewed online encyclopedia. No password required
Books
You can access print and eBooks via the Library Catalogue. To find books on a particular subject, try a keyword search:
To improve your searching skills, see the Research Essentials Library Guide. Note that you can search the catalogue in non-Latin scripts (including Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Japanese and Korean).
For information on access and loans, including material from other libraries, see the borrowing from the library page. The eBook Guide provides information on eBook access.
Databases and journals
Use databases to search across many academic resources (including peer-reviewed journals) at the same time.
Refer to the A-Z Ejournals and Databases page for a comprehensive list of available resources.
Core Arts and Humanities databases:
The selection of multidisciplinary databases below will retrieve results from different subject areas.
- Discovery (EBSCO)Use Discovery to look for books, ebooks, journal articles and more. It's a great place to start your search but does not give you everything the Library has.
- Google ScholarGoogle Scholar is one of the most popular ways to find academic sources for study and research. Did you know you can use it to search for journal articles that the University of Melbourne has access to? You can do this through the link above or set up your Google Scholar preferences to include Library content.
- JSTORJSTOR is one of the largest databases the Library has access to. It is a multidisciplinary database so it looks in thousands of journals in over a hundred subjects - many of them related to arts and humanities. Highly recommended as your first or second place to search.
- ProQuest CentralCovering more than 160 subjects areas, ProQuest Central is the largest aggregated database of periodical content. This award-winning online reference resource features a highly-respected, diversified mix of content including scholarly journals, trade publications, magazines, books, newspapers, reports and videos.
- Scopus (Elsevier)Scopus is another large, multidisciplinary database. It looks through journals, books, and conference papers. It has some advanced tools that can help you discover new research quickly - the 'times cited' and 'related articles' links are great time-savers. While it doesn't always have full-text PDFs it is still an excellent place to look for your research.
- Web of ScienceWeb of Science is a massive, multidisciplinary database which includes a large amount of humanities and social sciences material from as far back as 1900. Like Scopus it has some advanced features that allows you to quickly link to related research.
Philosophy-specific databases:
For more focused results try searching in one of these subject-specific databases.
- Philosopher's Index (EBSCOhost)This database covers all fields of philosophy, including aesthetics, axiology, philosophy of education, epistemology, ethics, philosophy of history, philosophy of language, logic, metaphysics, philosophical anthropology, meta-philosophy, political philosophy, philosophy of science, social philosophy, and the philosophy of religion.
- PhilPapers: Philosophical Research Online This link opens in a new windowPhilPapers is a comprehensive index of philosophy books and articles. PhilPapers offers unique features such as real-time indexing of pre-prints, fine-grained classification by topic, email alerts, reading lists, advanced search functionality, and discussion forums.
- Imprint AcademicIncludes the Journal of Consciousness Studies, History of Political Thought, Mind and Matter, Cybernetics & Human Knowing and Collingwood and British Idealism Studies.
- Philosophy Documentation Center E-CollectionThe Philosophy Documentation Center’s E-Collection contains humanities and social science journals, book series, conference proceedings, and other publications. The Library has access to selected titles only.
Primary sources
- Electronic Enlightenment"Electronic Enlightenment is an online collection of edited correspondence of the early modern period, linking people across Europe, the Americas and Asia from the early 17th to the mid-19th century — reconstructing one of the world's great historical “conversations”. Eavesdrop on the private conversations and thoughts of a wide range of figures such as Voltaire and Rousseau, and also the lesser-known, from bankers to booksellers, merchants to mathematicians, and scholars to servants. The correspondents discuss everything from religious tolerance to animal rights, vulcanology to classical archeology, economic modelling to celebrity culture."
- Past Masters"InteLex Corporation's Past Masters includes significant collections in political thought, religious studies, sociology, the history of science, economics, and classics. The collection contains definitive editions of the full corpora of the seminal figures in the history of the humanities, including published and unpublished works, articles and essays, reviews and correspondence." The Library has access to selected titles.
Theses
Websites
You can find relevant information and resources for your research on the websites of professional organisations and bodies, institutes, NGOs, government departments, etc.
This guide gives a few suggestions to get you started and to give you an idea what to look for. It is by no means comprehensive. If you are a coursework student, check your LMS to see if your lecturer has provided website recommendations.
Tip: if you want to limit your Google search results to organisational, governmental, or educational websites, use Google's advanced search option to limit the site or domains to .org, .gov, .edu.
Referencing and citing
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