Scholarly Research in Film Studies

This page details how to engage in scholarly research in Cinema Studies, including:

• Determining scholarly, primary, and popular sources
• Scholarly Research in Cinema Studies terms and basics.

First, here is an overview of the different sources you may choose to use for your research:

Scholarly Sources

• Scholarly journals usually cite their sources in the form of footnotes or bibliographies.
• Articles/books are written by a scholar or expert in the field.
• Most scholarly articles are "peer reviewed" or "refereed"

Film criticism provides scholarly analyses of particular films, directors, actors, etc. and can be found in scholarly journal articles and in books (including collections and anthologies).

• The Finding Books section of the Film Studies research guide will help you find books on Cinema Studies, film criticism, and more.
• Magazine and journal articles that provide (scholarly and non-scholarly) film criticism can be found by searching in key databases that are linked from the Finding Articles section of the research guide.
• The Finding Films section of your guide allows you to locate films for viewing and further analysis.

Primary Sources

• Primary sources are contemporary (of-the-period) to your research topic or question.
• Primary sources come from a specific time, group, or geographical location; they give historical perspectives that may differ dramatically from more recent research.

Use the UW Libraries Catalog to help you find historical (and current) primary sources (books, films, documents) in the following ways:

• Search by publication year
• Search by key participants and organizations
• Search by genre/form, i.e. film

Popular Sources

• These publications rarely, if ever, cite sources.
• The main purpose of popular periodicals is usually to inform and/or entertain the reader.
• While it is important to be able to distinguish popular from scholarly sources, popular works may be useful to your research.

Another type of film criticism are film reviews that can be found in popular magazines and newspapers -- to find these articles, check out the Finding Articles section of this guide.

Scholarly Research in Cinema Studies

Keep in mind that your topic and research interest will help you determine which type of sources to use. It is important to note that often, the difference between scholarly publications and other types of secondary sources (magazines, newspapers, etc.) is that the former contain extensive footnotes, and/or endnotes, as well as bibliographies that document how and why the author makes the claims that s/he does -- and what the limits of those claims are. While both types of publications tend to present you with lots of interesting (or uninteresting) information, only scholarly publications let you in on the secret of how that information was created by revealing the disagreements among "experts" as they research similar questions. The advantage of reading scholarly publications is that they allow you to enter into the creative process of knowledge making by treating you as a fellow researcher who may want to extend, modify, and/or criticize the claims made in what you are reading.

If your topic/time period is new to you, or you need some quick review, use a Cinema Studies or Film encyclopedia to establish a fuller picture of the players, conditions, perspectives, and events related to your area of research. You will find that it is much easier to filter out redundant or non-pertinent information when you have armed yourself with the "big picture," found in scholarly subject encyclopedias.

As you engage in scholarly research within the discipline of Cinema Studies, remember that you can save yourself considerable time by following a research "trail", by looking at existing bibliographies or references section from key Cinema Studies scholars and works.

Citations

A citation is defined as information that precisely identifies a book, article, website, video/DVD, etc. It typically includes author, title, volume, publication information, page numbers, and sometimes an abstract. Other information such as subject headings or index terms may also be included in a citation. Scholars cite sources in their work so others may verify their work, build on it, or examine their subject matter in more depth.

Before using the tools listed below to locate cited books and articles, look at the footnote or citation itself to determine whether you need to search for a book or journal (examples of each are provided below).

BOOKS cited

• Look for cited book titles and cited book authors in the UW Libraries Catalog. Search for the title or author listed in the footnote or bibliography.
• If the UW Libraries does not have a copy of a title, look for it in the Summit Catalog, a unified database of the catalogs of academic libraries throughout Washington and Oregon. Summit is free to current UWB students.

Example of book citation: Austen, Guy. 1996. Contemporary French Cinema. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

ARTICLES cited

• Look for cited journal titles in the UW Libraries Catalog. Search for the journal title (not the article title) in the UW Libraries Catalog to see where and how you can access it.
  • If the articles you need are not available at the Campus Library, you can request copies through Document Delivery. You should receive them 3-5 days later, often times via e-mail. There is NO CHARGE for this service for course-related research! Please make sure to select a "pickup" location or an option that indicates "free."
• Look for cited article titles and cited authors of articles in a subject-specific database. Locate subject-specific databases by browsing by subject: UWB/CCC Campus Library subject guide or UW Libraries subject guide.
  • Within the appropriate subject databases, search by the author cited or the article title.
• Finding Articles provides information on how to identify and search appropriate databases, locate the full-text of articles, and more.

Example of journal article citation: Nocenti, Annie. Writing "Being John Malkovich." Scenario: the Magazine of Screenwriting Art 5 n3 (1999): 98-105.

DATABASES to help you follow a research trail:

• Web of Science UW/CCC restricted
  Science, social sciences, and arts and humanities citation indexes. Help researching cited references in Web of Science.
• Expanded Academic Index UW/CCC restricted
  Provides indexing and abstracting for approximately 1,500 scholarly and general interest periodicals, covering all major fields of study in the humanities, social sciences, and science and technology.
• Research Library Complete UW/CCC restricted
  Indexing and full text for a basic collection of general-interest, humanities, social science and science periodicals and newspapers, from 1986 to present.

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION about scholars:

• Literature Resource Center UW/CCC restricted
  Search for information on prominent scholars and authors, including biographies and criticism. Be sure to look at "writings by the author" and "writings about the author".
• Complete list of biographical resources

For more help, feel free to contact me:

Kathleen DeLaurenti, Sociology and Film Studies Librarian
Email:kdelaurenti@uwb.edu
Phone: 425-352-3167
Office: LB1-210A

Back to Film Studies research guide