Subject Guide
Secondary Sources
What is a secondary source?
A secondary source is a scholarly discussion based on primary sources. Typically, a secondary source contains original research.
Why should I use secondary sources?
Secondary sources are useful for in-depth analysis of your topic and for learning about scholarly perspectives on your topic. You can use a secondary source as a conversation partner about a topic or you can take the methodology from a secondary source an apply it to a new research question.
What are some examples of secondary sources?
Secondary sources include articles, blogs, books (often called monographs), lectures, podcasts, and scientific reports. Any kind of scholarly liter can be a secondary source.
Pro tip: Although the distinction between primary sources and secondary sources is useful, it is not absolute. A secondary source may become a primary source depending on the researcher's perspective. Consider a textbook on American history from the 1990's. If a researcher uses the textbook for a scholarly perspective on the civil rights movement, then it is a secondary source. However, if the researcher uses the textbook to as evidence of curriculum in the 1990's, then it is a primary soruce.
Specialized Databases
Subject-specific databases can help you to locate scholarly articles in a particular discipline more precisely than a tool like JumboSearch. Subject-specific databases include both religion and film and media studies.
- AFI CatalogFilm & media studies | Catalog of American Films | 1893-1974 complete coverage; 1974-present select coverage
- ATLA ReligionReligious studies | Abstracts and full-text content
- Communication & Mass Media CompleteCommunication studies | Abstracts, index, and some full-text coverage
- Film & Television Literature IndexFilm & media studies | Abstracts and index
- MLA International BibliographyLanguage & literature studies | Abstracts, index, and some full-text coverage
- Screen Studies CollectionFilm & media studies | Abstracts, filmographies, indexes, and some full-text content
Select Journals
- Category: Films about Religion (Wikipedia)A list of sub-categories which might help you identify a theme.
- Film CriticismFilm Criticism is a peer-reviewed, online publication bringing together scholarship in the field of cinema and media studies since 1975.
- JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media StudiesJCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies is the peer-reviewed, scholarly publication of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS). JCMS's basic mission is to foster engaged debate and rigorous thinking among humanities scholars of film, television, digital media, and other audiovisual technologies.
- Journal of Religion and FilmThe Journal of Religion & Film is a peer reviewed journal which is committed to the study of connections between the medium of film and the phenomena of religion, however those are defined.
- Journal of Religion and Popular CultureThe Journal of Religion and Popular Culture is a web-based, peer-reviewed journal committed to the academic exploration, analysis and interpretation, from a range of disciplinary perspectives, of the interrelations and interactions between religion and religious expression and popular culture, broadly defined as the products of contemporary mass culture.
- List of Religious Films (Wikipedia)One of the things Wikipedia is good at is lists. Usually. This one could use some additions.
General Databases
- Academic Search PremierMultidisciplinary | Abstracts, index, and full-text content
- Arts & Humanities Citation IndexMultidisciplinary | Abstracts and index
- Arts & Humanities DatabaseMultidisciplinary | Abstracts, index and full-text content
- Essay and General Literature IndexMultidisciplinary | Index of essays
- JSTORMultidisciplinary | Abstracts and full-text content
Secondary Sources in JumboSearch
Searching by Subject Terms
Books in the library catalog are tagged with subject terms to help patrons find books on specific topics. Here is a list of suggested subject terms to use in JumboSearch:
- B films
- Film criticism
- Film noir -- United States -- History and criticism
- Motion pictures -- Aesthetics
- Motion pictures -- Evaluation
- Motion pictures -- Religious aspects
- Motion pictures -- Social aspects
- Popular culture -- Religious aspects
- Religion and culture
- Religion in motion pictures
- Religious films -- History and criticism