FAQS

Seminal sources tend to be the major studies that initially presented an idea of great importance or influence within a particular discipline. These works were generally published in the past 20-50 years. These are the researchers/thinkers/authors that everyone discusses (whether or not current research agrees with their findings). If you don’t know of any specific researchers that are THE ones for your topic (think Vygotsky, Piaget, Gardner, Benner) then you can try to identify some:

1. Compare the reference lists of articles that are really on topic. The items/authors that show up on multiple lists are probably key figures in the research.
    
2. Search your topic on Google Scholar. Under each item is a link that says, ‘Cited by XX.’ Articles that have been cited many (think hundreds) of times are probably fairly key. You can pull some of these as seminal sources.
    
3. Search your topic/author in our ebook databases. Keep in mind that seminal works were probably published quite some time ago. Limiting a database search to only the past 5 or 10 years, for example, may exclude seminal studies/books from your results. Try NOT using a date limiter, or, set your date limiters to 10+ years ago.​
    
4. Or, try using our Historical and Seminal Works eBook search using the box below:

Can't find the specific article or book you are looking for within the Rasmussen library? You can submit a request through interlibrary loan.