Sometimes your assignments will ask you to find a scholarly article that has one point of view about a topic as well as some articles that criticize or respond to it. Other times, a scholarly article says something that sounds controversial, or contradicts what you’ve read elsewhere. Should you trust it? Perhaps not without finding out what other scholars think about it.
Here’s the basic step-by-step.
- In OneSearch, or the database where you found the first article, click Advanced Search,
- Look at the date the original article was published and limit your search to that year onward. For example, if the article came out in 2019, set your search to 2019-2023 (or the current year),
- Set the pull-down menu next to the search box to Author or Title,
- Search for (“author’s last name” OR “short title of the article”) AND (“critique” OR “response”). For example, if your original article is “Two Faces of Power” by Peter Bachrach and Morton Baratz, search this:
(“two faces of power” OR (bachrach AND baratz)) AND (“critique” OR “response”)
Visit Creating a Concept Chart and Boolean Operators for help with developing and combining keywords.
Bear in mind that not every article has direct responses to it. If you have tried several variations on the search and have not had any luck, even with a librarian’s help, you may wish to simply search for articles on the same topic.
You may also be interested in Opposing Viewpoints in Context, a database that has scholarly articles, popular articles, primary sources and opinion pieces about various hot topics and controversies.
