- Bibliography
List of works with bibliographic references, brought together for some specific reason, and ordered in some way.
May occasionally include short summaries with every item.
- Reference work
List of information on specific things. E.g. dictionaries are reference works for words, encyclopedias for persons/notions, etc. Will usually have ‘further reading’ lists.
- Academic (e-)book
- Text editions
- Academic editions of textual sources. Multiple texts from the same author are often published as ‘Collected Works’ (e.g., Opera Omnia or Oeuvres Complètes).
- Diplomatic text edition: Represents the original text in detail.
- Critical text edition: Usually have an introduction which describes how the text is transmitted. In the critical apparatus textual variants (variant readings) are listed, e.g. from different manuscripts or from older editions. A source apparatus refers to sources that the author used and also lists parallel passages in other works by the author.
- Critical text editions may also contain translations or commentary.
- Translations
Translation of a work. Usually has an introduction that explains the reasoning behind the principle of the translations (literal or free way? How have new words or philosophical terms been translated?). May occasionally contain a text edition (in the original language) or commentary.
- Handbooks
Brief overview of the state of affairs in a topic, often called “companions”/“handbooks”/“introductions”. Sometimes only an analytical or continental perspective.
- Historical overviews
Offers a brief overview of the history of a subject. “Routledge History of Philosophy”
- Monographs
A detailed study of one person or one specific subject within a discipline, aims to provide a holistic perspective on it.
- Anthologies
A collection of (parts of) texts that are assembled either based on a common author or common (specific) subject, usually ones that have gained authority in a field of study.
- Compilations or collections
Also a collection based on subject or author, but of articles, and will always have been edited by someone.
• Collected essays or collected papers: contain important articles which a renowned academic has published during his/her career.
• Proceedings: with articles based on lectures in an academic conference
• Liber amicorum: on the occasion of a birthday or retirement, with articles written by colleagues
- (E-)Journal
Periodic publication (weekly, monthly, etc.) that contains brief, specific studies of a subject within a certain discipline. Sometimes book reviews, conference reports, debates.
Each article written by different authors, usually about different topics (with the exception of special issues, which center on a specific theme).
A volume will consist of different issues.
- Theses
Written by students under the supervision of professors or instructors specialized in the field of study the thesis is in, in order to complete a certain study. Can be a BA paper, MA thesis, doctoral thesis or dissertation. You need the author’s permission to use these as a source.
- Catalogue
Contains a description (bibliographic reference) of books, journals and/or other materials, and where to find them (online or in a physical location).
A catalogue usually does not contain the titles of journal articles, only the titles of the journals themselves.
- Database
Contains descriptions (bibliographic reference) of academic publications (books, journal articles, chapters in books, …).
- Bibliographic database
Will contain bibliographic references, sometimes a summary/abstract and keywords. Will sometimes link to the full text elsewhere. E.g. Limo, Philosopher’s Index, PhilPapers, etc.
- Full text database
Will contain bibliographic references, and the full text of works, which will often be fully searchable. E.g. JSTOR, Oxford Handbooks Online.
- Citation database
Will contain bibliographic references, and show the bibliographies/reference lists of articles contained in it. E.g. web of science, google scholar, etc. Shows what publications refer to a work and what that work refers to.
- News sites and digital newspaper archives
Contain digital news sources.
- Search engines
Automatically indexes web documents, and make (publicly accessible) pages findable on the internet
- Social sites for academics
Academic social network sites (academia.edu, ResearchGate) / Online reference sharing sites (Zotero).