Introduction to Historical Research : Articles
Area-Specific Databases
In addition to the general article databases, there are many databases that deal with specific geographic areas. Some of those are listed below.
Finding Scholarly Articles
There are a number of tools you can use to find scholarly articles written on historical topics. Although many articles are freely available on the web, vast amounts are not. This is not to say that internet search engines are not an important part of your search, in fact Google Scholar is an excellent tool, it just means that your research should not end there.
The library provides access to databases that contain articles that will be crucial to your research, and we suggest you explore those too. Visit the Databases page of the library web site for a complete listing of library databases.
Below are some suggested core database to begin your search:
- America: History and LifeIndexes and abstracts more than 1700 social science and humanities journals in the field of United States and Canadian history. Links to full-text articles are included when available. Books and dissertations are included.
- Historical AbstractsHistorical Abstracts indexes and abstracts information in world history and the related social sciences and humanities, excluding the U.S. and Canada. It lists articles covering the years 1450 to the present. Collections of essays, conference papers, dissertations, and books are also included.
- History of Science, Technology, and MedicineA definitive international database for the history of science, technology, and medicine. It reflects the influences of these fields on society and culture from prehistory to the present and offers outstanding value for interdisciplinary research.
- JSTOR: The Scholarly Journal ArchiveThis is a full-text journal database of more than 1,200 titles in the fields of African-American studies, anthropology, architecture, Asian studies, biological sciences, botany, ecology, economics, education, film, finance, folklore, history, language, literature, mathematics, middle east studies, music, philosophy, political science, population/demography, religion, sociology, and statistics.
Finding the fulltext of an article
Below you will find a couple ways to access the online fulltext of a journal article:
1. Follow the Find It button in most databases to:
- access online full text (when available) - click link to online resource
- see if the journal is available in print (library catalog) - click "Look for Print and Other Formats in the Library Catalog"
- request a free PDF of the article if full text is not available online - click Request A Copy and log into Interlibrary Loan
2. If you already know what article you are looking for and you have the citation, search the journal title using Find journals by title.