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Film Studies

Finding Online Articles

The following databases are a good place to start finding peer reviewed articles on film studies topics. For advice on how to search, using boolean operators, and identifying scholarly resources, look at our Library Research Skills Tutorial.

How to Search with Keywords

Your keywords are the main concepts or ideas of your paper. 

Shows how Boolean works (Synonyms with OR between them) AND (Synonyms)

For example the keywords for a paper on “youth employment in Canada” would be:

  • Youth
  • Employment
  • Canada

 

Use synonyms: Often there are multiple ways to express the same concept. For example these synonyms mean essentially the same thing – make sure to use them:

employment can also be:

  • job
  • work
  • career

Use “AND” and “OR”: By bridging your truncated keywords and synonyms with the capitalized search words “AND” and “OR” (known as Boolean operators), you can search for multiple concepts effectively.

 

We Have More information on Search Techniques 

 

 

Film Analysis and Film Language Glossary (Terms)

Yale Film Analysis Guide

The Film Analysis Guide was developed to meet the needs of faculty and students at Yale who are interested in becoming familiar with the vocabulary of film studies and the techniques of cinema.

Columbia Film Language Glossary

The Columbia Film Language Glossary is a teaching tool designed to enhance the study of film. The Glossary features key terms in film studies selected by Columbia faculty and illustrated with detailed explanations, film clips, and visual annotations.

Peer Reviewed Resources

What is a peer reviewed article?

A peer reviewed article is an article that has been written by an expert and has been reviewed by other experts before being published. This review process ensures the quality of information in the article.  

How to find peer reviewed articles

The Library subscribes to a large number of journals, newspapers and other resources.  Not all articles are peer-reviewed, so you need to find a way to limit your results to peer reviewed articles.

  • Some databases (Eg. Proquest) will let you click a peer review only checkbox before you start searching
  • Other databases and Search Everything will let you limit to peer reviewed articles once you have completed the search 

 

Proquest Search Box with Peer reviewed option checked

Where to click Peer Reviewed button on ProQuest Databases

 

Search Everything Search Results with Peer Reviewed limit applied

Peer Reviewed button on Search Everything (on the left side)

How can I tell if my article is peer reviewed?

I've found a great article, but I don't know if it is peer reviewed?  By using a resource called Ulrich's International Periodical Directory, you can check to see if the journal that the article is from is peer-reviewed.

  1. Go to Ulrich's
  2. Enter the title of the journal (not the title of the article) in the search box
  3. If an icon  appears by the journal title in the peer reviewed column, then the title is peer reviewed.