LibGuides: HIST 623: Special Topics in U.S., European, or Atlantic World History (Alves): Secondary sources: Journal articles

Which search terms to use?

When looking for secondary, scholarly sources about historical events, periods, people, or social conditions depicted in a novel or story, choose search terms that represent those things. Unlike primary source research, words that are in use today are fine, and perhaps even preferable if you hope to find the most recent research on your topic.

Databases for finding journal articles about witchcraft, witches, and magic

These databases will be useful places to look for secondary, scholarly articles about witches, magic, and accusations of witchcraft.

America: History & Life with Full Text
Description: Key database for research in American and Canadian history. Indexes journals from the 1914 to the present, containing articles on all eras of American history.
Time Period: 19th century to present
Sources: Indexes more than 1,500 academic journals with the full text of more than 180 titles.
Subject Headings: Art & Architecture, History, Humanities, Mobile, Social Sciences
Primary Materials: Abstracts, Books/e-books, Citations, Conference Papers, Dissertation and Theses, Journal Articles, Magazine Articles
Number of Simultaneous Users: 6
Historical Abstracts with Full Text
Description: Historical Abstracts indexes articles that cover world history from the 15th century forward, including military history, women's history, and the history of education. The database includes some linked full text and searches can be limited to articles about a specified historical period.
Time Period: 1914 to present
Sources: Indexes more than 1,800 journals and provides the full text for more than 475 journal titles.
Subject Headings: History, Mobile, Social Sciences
Primary Materials: Abstracts, Dissertation and Theses, Journal Articles, Reviews
Number of Simultaneous Users: 6
JSTOR
Description: JSTOR allows you to search across approximately 2,000 journal titles from more than 50 disciplines. It contains complete backfiles of scholarly journals starting with the first issues, many of which date back from the 1800s. Although the majority of titles do not have the most recent 3 to 5 years available in full text, there are some which have the current issues available.

Note: Additional content has been permanently added to JSTOR, including archived journal collections and primary resources. Searches performed using the databases page link will include results from the additional sources, as will the link above.

Time Period: 19th century to present
Sources: Provides the full text for approximately 2,000 journals.
Subject Headings: Art & Architecture, Business, Education, English & Linguistics, General, Health, History, Humanities, Law, Mobile, Music, Philosophy & Religion, Psychology, Science, Social Sciences, Technology
Primary Materials: Citations, Journal Articles, Reviews
History Reference Center
Description: History Reference Center includes full-text content from 150 leading history journals. Content comes from leading history publishers such as Branden Publishing, Compass Point Books, Houghton Mifflin, Lerner Publishing Group, Mason Crest Publishers, Morgan Reynolds, Inc., Oxford University Press and Rourke Publishing LLC, and includes exclusive proprietary content from Salem Press.
Time Period:
Sources: Contains more than 630,900 full-text records from peer-reviewed journals, reference books, periodicals and other sources.
Subject Headings: History, Humanities, Social Sciences
Primary Materials: Books/e-books, Journal Articles
Sociological Abstracts
Description: Sociological Abstracts provides access to U.S. and international literature on sociology and related disciplines and may be useful for research in social work and women and gender studies.
Time Period: 1952 to present
Sources: Indexes more than 1,800 journals.
Subject Headings: Philosophy & Religion, Psychology, Social Sciences (Sociology)
Primary Materials: Journal Articles, Dissertations and Theses, Books, Conference Papers
Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson)
Description: Social Sciences Full Text covers the latest concepts, theories and methods from both applied and theoretical aspects of the social sciences, this full-text resource provides access to the most important English-language social science journals. Indexes more than 700 peer reviewed journals.
Time Period: 1972 to present
Sources: Indexes more than 770 periodicals and provides full text for more than 330.
Subject Headings: Business, Education, History, Psychology, Social Sciences
Primary Materials: Journal Articles
Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI)
Description: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) allows you to see who has cited who/ what in any of the most cited 3,000 journals in the social sciences. It also allows you to search for articles on topics.
Time Period: 1956 to present
Sources: 1
Subject Headings: Education, English & Linguistics, History, Humanities, Law, Philosophy & Religion, Psychology, Social Sciences
Primary Materials: Abstracts, Citations
Project MUSE
Description: Project Muse is a full text database of journals in disciplines such as art, literature, history, political science, and economics. Some full text will come from JSTOR, in PDF format.
Time Period: 1993 to present
Sources: Indexes more than 300 journals.
Subject Headings: Art & Architecture, English & Linguistics, History, Humanities, Philosophy & Religion, Psychology
Primary Materials: Books/e-books, Citations, Journal Articles

Databases for finding journal articles about natural philosophy and the history of the sciences

These databases will be useful places to look for secondary, scholarly articles about natural philosophy and the history of science.

ScienceDirect
Description: ScienceDirect offers more than a quarter of the world's scientific, medical and technical information online. More than 2,000 peer-reviewed journals. Hundreds of book series, handbooks and reference works. Note: MultiLink appears in the article record rather than on the results list.
Time Period: 1990's to present
Sources: Indexes nearly 4,000 journals.
Subject Headings: Health, Science
Primary Materials: Journal Articles
Springer Online Journals Complete
Description: Springer Online Journals Complete provides full text access to Springer Journals.
Time Period: 1852 to present
Sources:
Subject Headings: Business, Health, Humanities, Law, Science, Social Sciences, Technology
Primary Materials: Journal Articles
Ingenta Connect
Description: A very large multidisciplinary database that concentrates on science and medicine journals, with fewer journals in the social sciences and humanities. Ingenta works closely with many journal publishers, offering users a chance to purchase full-text articles.
Time Period: 1988-present
Sources: over 29,000 journals
Subject Headings: General, Health, Science
Primary Materials: Journal articles
Web of Science
Description: Cross searching of Science Citation Index Expanded back to 1973, Social Sciences Citation Index back to 1981/82, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index back to 1976.
Time Period: 1900-present
Sources:
Subject Headings: Art & Architecture, Education, English & Linguistics, General, Health, History, Humanities, Law, Music, Philosophy & Religion, Psychology, Science, Social Sciences, Technology
Primary Materials: Abstracts, Citations, Journal Articles
Sociological Abstracts
Description: Sociological Abstracts provides access to U.S. and international literature on sociology and related disciplines and may be useful for research in social work and women and gender studies.
Time Period: 1952 to present
Sources: Indexes more than 1,800 journals.
Subject Headings: Philosophy & Religion, Psychology, Social Sciences (Sociology)
Primary Materials: Journal Articles, Dissertations and Theses, Books, Conference Papers
JSTOR
Description: JSTOR allows you to search across approximately 2,000 journal titles from more than 50 disciplines. It contains complete backfiles of scholarly journals starting with the first issues, many of which date back from the 1800s. Although the majority of titles do not have the most recent 3 to 5 years available in full text, there are some which have the current issues available.

Note: Additional content has been permanently added to JSTOR, including archived journal collections and primary resources. Searches performed using the databases page link will include results from the additional sources, as will the link above.

Time Period: 19th century to present
Sources: Provides the full text for approximately 2,000 journals.
Subject Headings: Art & Architecture, Business, Education, English & Linguistics, General, Health, History, Humanities, Law, Mobile, Music, Philosophy & Religion, Psychology, Science, Social Sciences, Technology
Primary Materials: Citations, Journal Articles, Reviews
Academic Search Complete
Description: Good database for most research topics and contains lots of full text and peer reviewed articles.
Time Period: 1909 to present
Sources: Indexes nearly 20,000 Academic and peer reviewed journals and magazines and provides full text for more than 5,700.
Subject Headings: Art & Architecture, Business, Education, English & Linguistics, General, Health, History, Humanities, Law, Music, News, Philosophy & Religion, Psychology, Science, Social Sciences, Technology
Primary Materials: Abstracts, Case Studies, Citations, Conference Papers, Images, Journal Articles, Magazine Articles, News, Other, Reviews