For an excellent paper in a history course--be it a short essay or a long research paper--you need to find relevant scholarship to build off of. That material might include peer reviewed:
You can find that material through your beloved Boston College Libraries or we can order necessary material for you through Interlibrary Loan.
You can also find books and articles about Arabian Nights. You can find two examples below. Take a look at the call numbers (O'Neill Stacks PJ7737) and consider browsing the stacks.
Your local libraries have excellent monographs and anthologies located in O'Neill library as well as through the BC libraries portal. Try search for books through the WorldCat library system (search only books) to see if we have it or you need to order through ILL.
For a selection of excellent journals and some e-books on various topics in global history, we recommend a few databases. Remember to explore these database "advanced search" options for date and other modifiers before you run your searches.
Need to check whether a journal article is peer reviewed? Check out Ulrichsweb Global Serials Directory. Look up your journal's name and if Ulrichsweb includes a symbol, you know it's been peer reviewed (also called "refereed").
Bibliographies allow you to follow an author's sources backwards in time. By definition, anything cited in a book or article will have been published prior to that book or article.
Citation tracking allows you to move forward in time, following who has cited that book or article since its publication. You can deduce how influential a specific source has been and follow the scholarly conversation around a specific topic.