History Resource Guide: Finding Articles

(and Reports, Book Chapters, etc.)

Scholarly / Popular

How can you tell the difference between and scholarly and popular periodicals? The table shown below lists some differences between scholarly and popular sources.

For examples, see the Inflite tutorial.

Searching Article Databases

Background

University Library subscribes to hundreds of article indexing databases which are available to you on campus or from home once you have logged in with your user ID and password. These databases are important because they allow to search for articles by keyword, topic, title, author, etc. Remember, a library catalog such as IUCAT will allow you to search for journal titles, but will not allow you to search for specific articles within the journal.

Search Tips

To find out which databases are most likely to have the kinds of articles that will be helpful to you, check the "Database Descriptions", "Title List", or other "information" or "about" options available in a particular database. See the section below on Suggested Databases for History specific databases.

Before you start entering any search terms, spend a few minutes trying to think of as many relevant terms and combinations of terms as you can. This will help you to avoid getting stuck in a rut with the first terms that come to mind.

If you need help in coming up with terms, you may want to try the databases' "Thesaurus" or "Subject Headings" features.

Check out the "Help" or "Search Tips" to learn some of the search features specific to that database. Most databases provide similar features, but the methods may vary.

Try the databases' Advanced Search feature, which usually gives you the ability to search multiple fields (author, title, keyword, subject, etc) with one search and may offer additional ways to expand or limit your search.

If your first search strategy does not work, try another approach. Remember, too, that you can ask for Reference Help.

Looking for a way to find out which electronic full-text journals IUPUI has access to? Then try here...

• History Journals Online
  Alphabetical listing of all electronic full-text journals to which IUPUI University Library has access. Use when you would like to search or browse a specific journal that is not necessarily in the field of history or when you already have a specific citation and want to see if the article is available online.

or, if you want to see a listing of all of the History journals IUPUI subscribes to, try here:

• School of Liberal Arts Library Journals Database (Available inside Cavanaugh Hall and University Library only)
  "The Liberal Arts Journals database contains journal titles to which the University Library subscribes from the resources account for Liberal Arts." (from website) To see which History journals IUPUI subscribes to, go to the Search by a specific Liberal Arts Department: menu and select History, and then select Individual Report. This will yield a listing of all History journals. The listing is updated at the beginning of the fiscal year.

Suggested Databases

Full-Text, Abstract, and Citation Databases (Journals, Magazines, Book Reviews, and some Newspapers)

• Academic Search Premier (access via Academic Search Elite link or EBSCOhost Web link)
  "Academic Search Elite offers full text for more than 2,000 serials, including more than 1,500 peer-reviewed titles. This multi-disciplinary database covers virtually every area of academic study. More than 100 journals have PDF images back to 1985. This database is updated on a daily basis via EBSCOhost." (from website)
• America: History and Life
  An index with abstracts, may lead to full-text, All scholarly. Advanced search easily allows one to limit by time period, browse subject headings, and select the language of the article. American history only.
• Arts and Humanities Citation Index (1987-)
  Available through ISI's Web of Knowledge's Web of Science. This database features humanities citations from 1987 to the present. Features general, advanced, and cited reference searches.
• Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers (Library of Congress)
  "This site allows you to search and read newspaper pages from 1900-1910 and find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress as part of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP)" - Chronicling America Homepage.
• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) History Journals
  Links to Open Access (or freely available) full-text, peer or editorial reviewed, history related journals. Includes various areas of history including US and non-US.
• Expanded Academic ASAP
  Includes citations and lots of full-text. Very general database, but includes articles from history, and sociology journals.
• Historical Abstracts
  An index with abstracts, may lead to full-text, All scholarly. World, non-US history.
• Humanities Full-Text (via Wilson Web)
  Includes full text of social history. Good source for examining how various topics have been presented in literature throughout history as well as locating social history topics.
• Humanities Index International (access via EBSCOhost Web link)
  "Humanities International Index is a comprehensive database covering journals, books and other important reference sources in the humanities. Produced by Whitston Publishing (an imprint of EBSCO Publishing), Humanities International Index provides cover-to-cover indexing and abstracting for over 2,000 titles and contains more than 2 million records." (from website)
• IngentaConnect
  Includes citations and lots of full-text. Very general database, but includes articles from history cross-disciplinary journals. Not all content is peer-reviewed, but you can limit your search to return only peer-reviewed items.
• J-STOR
  All full-text and scholarly articles. Presents the back-files or the complete run of important journals up to a relatively recent embargo date. No controlled vocabulary or subject headings used. May limit keyword search to abstract, title, full-text. This database is complemented well by the ProjectMuse journals. Please view this tutorial for guidance in searching within JSTOR.
• LexisNexis
  For more current full-text articles in newspapers and magazines search the News section of LexisNexis. Most articles are from late 1980's-present.
• Master File Premier (access via EBSCOhost Web link)
  "Designed specifically for public libraries, this multidisciplinary database provides full text for more than 1,700 general reference publications with full text information dating as far back as 1975. Covering virtually every subject area of general interest, MasterFILE Premier also includes nearly 500 full text reference books, 84,774 biographies, 100,554 primary source documents, and an Image Collection of 202,164 photos, maps and flags. This database is updated daily via EBSCOhost." (from website)
• Periodicals Archive Online
  "Periodicals Archive Online is the new name for PCI Full Text - an archive of hundreds of digitised journals published in the arts, humanities and social sciences." (from website)
• Periodicals Index Online
  "Periodicals Index Online is the new name for Periodicals Contents Index - a database of millions of article citations published in the arts, humanities and social sciences, across more than 300 years." (from website)
• Project MUSE
  All full-text, all scholarly. Great deal of social history and literature sources and historiography based articles.

Newspaper Databases

• Historical New York Times (ProQuest Newspapers)
  Searchable online database which houses full-text digitized version of New York Times from 1860's-2004. Includes advertisements and images.
  
• Indiana Newsstand (ProQuest Newspapers)
  "Full-text coverage of major Indiana newspapers including the South Bend Tribune, and the Evansville Courier, plus selected coverage of other regional sources and indexing for the Indianapolis News and Star." (from the website)
• Indianapolis Star (via NewsBank)
  Online version of the Indianapolis Star, covering from 1/1/1999 to the present.
• LexisNexis
  For more current full-text articles in newspapers and magazines search the News section of LexisNexis. Most articles are from late 1980's-present.
• Los Angeles Times (ProQuest Newspapers)
  "Major daily newspaper from Los Angeles. With the nation's largest editorial department, it offers extensive coverage of national, international, and local news." (from website) Covers from 1985 to the present.
• McClasky-Tribune Collection (access via EBSCOhost Web link)
  "The McClatchy-Tribune Collection includes a 90-day archive of approximately 290 newspapers from the McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. This database is updated daily." (from website)
• Newspaper Source (access via EBSCOhost Web link)
  "Newspaper Source provides selected full text for nearly 30 national (U.S.) and international newspapers. The database also contains full text television & radio news transcripts, and selected full text for more than 200 regional (U.S.) newspapers. This database is updated daily via EBSCOhost." (from website)
  

Access

When you find a reference for an article by using a database:

In the record for the article, if there is an icon for the PDF of the article (PDF Full Text - or something similar), click on it and the PDF of the article will open. You can then read, print, email, or save it. (If you want to print, be sure to use the Adobe printer icon or you will only get blank pages.)

If there is a choice between PDF and HTML, use the PDF because it will look like a photocopy of the article. If you need to quote something from the article, you will be able to see the correct page numbers of the quote (which you will need when citing your sources). In most cases, the HTML version will not indicate page breaks and will sometimes not include graphics.

If full text is not an option in the database you are searching, there should be an "SFX" linking icon shown.

Clicking on this icon will lead you to a menu of Access options. Please see this brief Flash tutorial if you have questions about this menu.

If the article is not available electronically or in print through University Library, or if you are a Distance Education student and the article is only available in print, you can place an Interlibrary Loan for the article. When the article comes in (which usually takes at least a week), you will receive an email explaining how to access it electronically.

When you find a reference for an article from some source other than a database:

To find out if University Library has access to an article that you have found in a bibliography or some other source, you can:

Enter the citation (reference) information into Citation Linker. This should bring you to the Access menu. Please see this brief Flash tutorial if you have questions about this method.

Or

Check the Electronic Journal List to see if the journal and issue are available electronically. If not, search IUCAT by Periodical Title for the journal and check to see if University Library has access to the journal and issue you need. If you would like to see how to check IUCAT for access to journal holdings, please see this brief Flash tutorial.