These are online reference resources which provide introductions and topic articles for special subjects, written by scholarly authors. These articles often include extensive bibliographies, which make them valuable resources for citation chasing.
Other Useful Guides
- Online Reference CollectionMore information about reference resources at UIUC and where to find them
Online reference resources provided by Oxford Reference share a common search interface, with the exception of Oxford Islamic Studies Online.
Resources
- The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and WomenInformation on the major topics of scholarly interest within the study of Islam and women, with more than 450 articles with a concentration on contemporary issues.
- The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and PoliticsBased on the 2009 publication 'The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World', this work brings together new and updated entries, organised thematically around the major themes of political science: concepts, values, thought, ideologies, structures, institutions, and systems. It covers in-depth topics that are unique to the Muslim world, including basic beliefs; Muslim political history; Islam in specific geographic regions; thinkers and reformers; movements, society and economy; and international relations.
- The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and ArchitectureDeals with all aspects of Islamic art and architecture ranging from the Middle East to Africa to Central, South, and East Asia and includes entries on artists, rulers, writers, ceramics, sculpture, metalwork, painting, calligraphy, textiles, and more
- Encyclopedia of AfricaThe Encyclopedia of Africa focuses on African history and culture with articles that cover prominent individuals, events, trends, places, political movements, art forms, business and trade, religions, ethnic groups, organizations, and countries throughout Africa
Usage
Oxford Reference does not provide detailed documentation on any special features of its search engine. Two forms of searching are supported.
- Search within text - allows you to conduct a basic keyword search within a single reference text
- Site search - allows you to conduct a basic keyword search across all of the articles and chapters on the website
Booleans
Oxford Reference supports the use of the boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT. They must be capitalized to be parsed correctly. Unquoted search terms separated by white space implicitly have an "AND" connecting them.
Quotation
Multiple words grouped together with quotation marks are treated as a single search term. It is not clear what effect quotation marks have on boolean operators.
Post-Search Narrowing
Oxford Reference does not have an advanced search interface. However, it does allow for fairly robust post-search narrowing of search results. General features are described below.
- Refine Terms - Conduct a new search with added or modified search terms
- By Availability - Allows you to narrow search results by the access level of the items you're looking for
- By Reference Type - Narrow search results based on the kind of reference resources being searched within
- Refine By Subject - Narrow search results by selecting only for specific subject areas
- By Content Set - Narrow search based on different subsets of resources available through Oxford Reference
- By Illustrations - Narrow search to results with illustrations or images only
Oxford Islamic Studies Online offers a distinct search interface from the rest of Oxford's resources.
Usage
Oxford Islamic Studies offers 7 different types of searches, available through the advanced search interface.To access them:
1. Locate the Advanced Search tab in Oxford Islamic Studies Online's navigation bar
2. Mouse over this tab to bring up the following menu
- Main Search - searches the entire website
- Biography Search - searches biographical articles
- Image and Map Search - searches visual media and maps
- Primary Source Search - searches primary sources and documents
- Bibliography Search - searches across all bibliographic citations located in the collection
- Qur'an Search - searches for Qur'an verses across two different translations (Arberry and Haleem
- Concordance Search - allows one to search for specific terms (English and Arabic) within the Qur'an and find associated passages
Booleans
Search engines support AND, OR, and NOT operators. They must be entered in UPPERCASE.
The relationship between terms separated by whitespace is not documented publicly, but is assumed to be additive (an AND is implied between search terms).
Quoting
Quoted phrases are treated as single search terms, regardless of internal whitespace. Boolean operators break up quoted phrases and lead to usually undesirable results. For example, "boys AND girls" is interpreted as the search terms '"boys' and the search term 'girls"' joined with AND.
Other
Oxford Islamic Studies Online also supports the NEAR keyword, which matches if the left term is near the right term within the text of an article.
Online reference resources provided by Credo Reference share a common search interface.
Resources
- Encylopedia of IslamIn about 550 A-to-Z entries, Encyclopedia of Islam explores the terms, concepts, personalities, historical events, and institutions that helped shape the history of this religion and the way it is practiced today. An informative introduction provides readers with an overview of Islam, and a chronology, a detailed bibliography complete the work.
Usage
Credo Reference does not provide detailed documentation on any special features of its search engine. In general, it allows for three major forms of searches.
- Search within text - allows you to conduct a basic keyword search within a single reference text
- Basic site search - allows you to conduct a basic keyword search across all of the articles and chapters on the website
- Advanced search - search the entire site with an expanded set of features, detailed below
Advanced Search
Credo Reference's advanced search is accessed by clicking the "Advanced Search" link to the right of the basic site search bar
Booleans
Credo Reference allows you to define boolean relationships between search terms by placing terms in different boxes. You have 4 boxes to choose from:
- "With all of the words" - all of the terms input here must be matched for an article to appear
- "With the exact phrase" - words in this box must be matched in the order they appear, similar to quoting words in other search engines. Boolean relationship with other terms is unclear
- "With any of the words" - articles match if they match any of the terms in this box, along with fulfilling other conditions
- "Without these words" - articles matching these terms are excluded
Other
Additonal options include:
- "Search only within headings" - if marked, searches subject headings only
- Collection selection
- Subject selection
- Date selection
- Selection for article features like images, audio, etc.