Researching the history of premodern China

HIST 009A

 

Simon Elichko (they/them)
Social Sciences & Data Librarian

What we'll discuss:

  • Journals, publishers, and making sense of citations
     
  • Best practices for finding scholarly research

Journal Article

Book

Journal Articles

Hao, Yu, Zhengcheng Liu, Xi Weng, and Li-an Zhou. "The Making of Bad Gentry: The Abolition of Keju, Local Governance, and Anti-Elite Protests, 1902–1911." The Journal of Economic History 82, no. 3 (2022): 625-661.

Citation elements for a journal article:

Author(s). Title of Article. Journal Title. Volume Number, Issue Number: Page Numbers

Benjamin Elman, “Political, Social, and Cultural Reproduction via Civil Service Examinations in Late Imperial China,” The Journal of Asian Studies 50, no. 1 (1991): pp. 7-28.

Books + Book Chapters

Citation elements for a book chapter:

Chapter Author, "Title of Chapter," in Editor(s), Book Title. Location: Publisher. Page Numbers.

Citation elements for a book:

Author(s) or Editor(s). Title of book. Location: Publisher. Year.

Yung Sik Kim and Francesca Bray (eds), Current Perspectives in the History of Science in East Asia, Seoul National University Press, 1999.

Bray, Francesca. "Instructive and nourishing landscapes: natural resources, people and the state in late imperial China," in Greg Bankoff and Peter Boomgaard (eds), The wealth of nature: how natural resources have shaped Asian history, 1600-2000, Palgrave Macmillan, 2007: 205-226.

Endymion Wilkinson, “How Do We Know What We Know about Chinese History?,” in A Companion to Chinese History, ed. Michael Szonyi (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2017), 11-27

Charles Sanft, “Environment and Law in Early Imperial China (Third Century BCE–First Century CE): Qin
and Han Statutes Concerning Natural Resources,” Environmental History 15, no. 4 (2010): 701–721.

Benjamin Elman, “Political, Social, and Cultural Reproduction via Civil Service Examinations in Late
Imperial China,” The Journal of Asian Studies 50, no. 1 (1991): pp. 7-28.

Hyunhee Park, “From Imperial Encounter to Maritime Trade: Chinese Understanding of the Islamic World, 750–1260,” in  Mapping the Chinese and Islamic Worlds: Cross-Cultural Exchange in Pre-Modern Asia  (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), pp. 20-55.

Finding Scholarly Research

Best Practices:

  • Search for sources using research tools like JSTOR
     
  • Learn some strategies to improve your search results
     
  • Evaluate your sources using tips from the research guide

Useful tools for finding
scholarly research

You can get links to JSTOR
and other databases here:

Research guide

for HIST 009A

Learn how to improve your searches

Searching for articles and books in JSTOR

  1. Go to JSTOR.org
  2. Search "silk road" china maps
  3. Use filters to limit your results to History journals

Search Tips

  • phrase search:  "silk road"                  vs. silk road
  • proximity:           silk NEAR 5 China    vs. silk China

Evaluate your results using

tips from the research guide

Evaluating Sources

Research help is available

  • Make an appointment with Simon: bit.ly/selichk1
     
  • Email selichk1@swarthmore.edu
     
  • Other ways to get help:
    • Email librarian@swarthmore.edu
    • Chat help in Tripod
    • Drop by the McCabe Research & Info Desk (staffed by librarians and RIAs)