This assignment will explore secondary sources. Secondary sources are those which develop new ideas based on a mixture of primary sources, other secondary sources, and the author(s)'s own new ideas. The most important element to consider when using secondary sources is their credibility.

How to determine whether the argument put forth by a secondary source is credible.

Check their footnotes and bibliography. Primary sources should form at least a portion of their discussion. Explain why this would be of importance:

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Then, one should determine who published this work (not only the scholar, but what press, what journal).

Determining the Credibility of Books

• Peer review vs. Popular: Peer-reviewed works are those which have been reviewed and criticized prior to publication by other scholars in their same field. This review is rigorous. In the field of art history, the rejection rate of submitted scholarly articles hovers around 90%. This lends an air of credibility to those works which have undergone this review. Scholarly journals and university and scholarly presses regularly use peer-review to determine which books and articles should be published.
• Popular works: Popular works have not undergone the same rigorous review, so they may sometimes harbor some fairly incredible theories. Yet, you should not dismiss these works out of hand. Occasionally, they have valuable information and they usually have the finest illustrations available.
• Publisher: Usually books that have been published by established university and scholarly presses (such as Boydell & Brewer, Brill Academic Press, etc.) have been thoroughly vetted, but sometimes an excellent book will be published by a relatively unknown press (Sutton Publishing, for example) which will enhance that particular field of study. Religious presses sometimes publish excellent works, but be careful to note that they often espouse a certain point of view which needs to be considered when using their books.
• Journal Articles: Journal articles published by the Weekly World News concerning the Egyptian pyramids are less likely to be credible than those published by Oxford University Press.
• Author: Again, scholarly books published by university and scholarly presses are usually authored by academics who teach at colleges, universities, or are curators in museums. However, because of the tight job market in academia, many excellent scholars are unable to obtain these positions. They, then become independent scholars and often published books that are outstanding. So-called amateurs (antiquarians, collectors, etc.) can also produce very convincing and important works. Keep in mind that no matter what background an author has they have a point of view that can sometimes color their research. Try to note if they work from a particular theoretical viewpoint.
• Criticism: Even when the most established scholar is published by the most prestigious university press, their work cannot be considered infalible. This is where criticism comes into play.
  • Book Reviews: Books reviews are crucial. Indeed, editors often commission reviews to be written by the author's scholarly opposite. This means that the book will sometimes be harshly dealt with (remember politics enter into academia even here), but reading these reviews will help you balance your views of the book. Other times, when it behooves the reviewer (to help their career) they will write a "puff piece" in order to ingratiate themselves with the important scholar who wrote the book under review. Also be wary of these types of reviews.
  Where to Find Book Reviews:
  • Art Full Text (1929-) This database includes some book reviews, searches should be done either by author of the book or using key words from the title.
  • Bibliography of the History of Art (1973-) BHA includes a limited number of book reviews.
  • Book Review Digest(1905-1995) Indexes and abstracts reviews of English language adult and juvenile fiction and non-fiction titles. Reviews are selected from journals in the humanities, sciences, social sciences and library review media. The volumes are located in the Kenyon reference collection at call number Z/1219/C95. Search the volumes published in the year of your book's copyright and for several volumes afterwards to locate citations to book reviews.
  • Book Review Index (1965-present) This resource is located in the reference stacks at Z/1035/A1/B6
  • Academic Search Complete This database is the world’s largest scholarly, multi-discipline, full text database designed specifically for academic institutions. This resource indexes over 4300 periodicals and contains full text for over 3400 scholarly publications. Academic Search Complete includes full-page images as well as color embedded images. This scholarly collection provides full text journal coverage for nearly all academic areas of study - including social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, language and linguistics, arts & literature, medical sciences, and ethnic studies.
  • Humanities Index (1984-) The Humanities Abstracts provides citations to articles from nearly 468 English-language periodicals in the fields of archaeology and classical studies, art and photography, folklore, history, journalism and communications, language and literature, literary and political criticism, music and performing arts, philosophy, and religion and theology.
  • E-mail Discussion Lists: Because book reviewers are usually hand-picked by editors, it is sometimes difficult to grasp what the audience at large thinks about a book. This is where e-mail discussion lists come in handy. These lists can be joined by anyone and are often vigorous free-for-all discussions on a wide range of topics, including books and articles. The most useful lists for our class are MEDART-L and MEDIEV-L, which maintain searchable archives.

Types of Criticism and Where to Find Them

How to Access E-mail Discussion Lists

E-mail discussion groups. There are many discussion groups focusing on medieval topics. They are lively, humorous, and quick. It gives you incredible access to some of the world's most important scholars and allows you to uncover new and interesting ideas. However, you CANNOT depend on them to do your homework for you indeed any hint of homework or questions posted without prior research are ignored or flamed down. If you have a specific question for which you cannot, to the best of your ability, find an answer for, you can enroll in a list and ask it. Remember, sometimes people will not know the answer or will give you answers that really do not apply. Before you enroll in a list, check their archives first. Here are two of the best:

http://scholar.chem.nyu.edu/mediev-l/archives.html This is the archives for MEDIEV-L a history list

http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~hsonne/MedartL/Newarchive.html

Another caveat: anyone can sign up for these lists, so the answers you receive may or may not be reliable.

Determining the Credibility of Journal Articles

Much of what was stated above about scholarly books is true of journal articles. There is a hierarchy of journals in terms of prestige and scholarly rigor. Journals such as Gesta, Art Bulletin, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Speculum, plus various journals of the local English archaeological societies are vetted and reviewed. Do not, however, overlook lesser journals including internet journals which are beginning to appear at record rates. Also examine journals of religion and history, which sometimes include important art-historical articles.

How to Access Journal Articles

Refer to assignment #2.

Criticism of Journal Articles

Criticism of journal articles is not nearly as organized as that of books. Yet you can find some sense of how articles are received by noting that other articles often repeatedly cite a particular article. Later articles sometimes rebut the opinions and ideas of earlier journal articles. Occasionally, a journal will publish a "review article." This kind of essay discusses a group of articles that focus on a particular topic.

Web Sites

Web sites are also considered secondary sources. Apply the same rigorous critical eye to them as you would any other secondary source. There are no official reviews of web sites, but note that which other web sites are linked to an original and excellent web site.

Note: Works published many years ago may not be as credible as more recent works as their ideas may have been over-turned or they did not (could not) take into account more recent discoveries. Yet, this is not a hard and fast rule. Some works written in 1890 or so are still the best we have.

Ultimately, whether a source has currency and credibility is determined by you. This can only be done once you have familiarized yourself with your subject. You will develop your own opinions about whether one theory or another seems sensible. Your own beliefs should be your ultimate guide.

ASSIGNMENT:

Please submit an annotated bibliography on your topic judging the worth and credibility of the secondary sources you will be using in your research paper. Please list all sources you have consulted and write up the following:

1.) One book

2.) One journal article

3.) One web site

4.) One e-mail discussion list archive

For each of these discuss how you determined that these sources were credible (or not).