LitSE considers recommendation questions off topic. This seems pretty sensible to me; I imagine they generate a lot of vague discussion that doesn't suit a question-answer site.
I propose that requests for scholarly literature on clear, specific topics should be excluded from this. If well-formed, they can be specific questions with clear answers backed by empirical evidence. Conflicting evidence can be argued about in a meaningful technical way.
Possible example questions that might fit this form:
- "What are well-known critical works analyzing the colonial themes in the Herman Melville novel Moby Dick?" Evidence: specific works, citation stats, teaching curricula.
- Are there any scholarly analyses of the covers of Penguin Classics, Oxford Classics, etc.? This one could have a more carefully worded question if we had a clearer guideline.
- "What was the critical consensus around the early Doctor Who novels?" Evidence: particular newspaper articles or other essays from the timeframe.
Edit: Related questions: What are the rules for resource requests? (from comments)
