Undergraduate Guide to Japanese Studies

This guide will help you use the Libraries search Engine, OneSearch, to:

• Search effectively to find resources to write your class papers
• Write about topics that you are excited to research
• How to find scholarly books and eBooks
• How to find scholarly peer-reviewed Journal articles
• Understand what Information the Libraries search engine gives you to make finding resources easier

The university library holds many books you would normally never see in any bookstore. They are often published by University Presses. They can be broad in scope such as "anime," or very narrowly focused, such as one Osaka mayor's mission to promote literacy.

Easy and quick to access, but can be difficult to read for longer focused sessions. Can search an entire book quickly, but is only useful when you have very specific terms or phrases.

Peer-Reviewed journals are of great value when doing research because the published articles have been reviewed by other scholars that question and criticize the author. Only after this process can the article be published. Scholarly articles are usually very narrow in focus and use specialized vocabulary.

If you find a book that relevant to your research, consider looking at a book review. Often, the reviewer will talk about similar books that you may not find otherwise.

You will see many newspaper articles in your search results. Whether you use these depends on the intentions of your research. You may need news articles for unfolding current events, to assess public sentiment on something, or find interviews with certain people.

You can use Zotero. It's free software that works with your browser to make tracking your sources and citing them later much easier. Check out the Libraries guide on using Zotero.