LibGuides: History: Finding Journal Articles

How to find journal articles

Do you want to find journal articles on a topic or look for a specific article?

Use Discovery - input your topic or the details of a journal article to search across most of the Library's resources

Discovery

If you have a journal title use Journal Finder to check if the Library has access to full text.

Journal Finder

What are journals?

They are: Journals

like magazines but of a scholarly nature
published at regular intervals with no predetermined end
contain articles on a variety of topics
the articles are written by different authors
sometimes they also contain reviews and other information
in printed and electronic formats

Why Should I use them?

journal time is much quicker than for a book
using information from journals will keep you up to date and informed of new developments in your subject
journals articles are more specific than books. They give you more detailed information in a more scholarly and concise format
subject may not yet (or may never) be covered in books
quality research - academic reputation - peer reviewed.

What is scholarly/peer reviewed?

Written by an academic, who is a specialist in the subject
Submitted to an editor, who then passes the work to other professionals or 'peers' for a critiques, the work is then passed back to the original writer for changes to be made before being published
Longer articles, heavily text based
Charts, tables, statistics and images
Properly referenced with a list of references at the end of the article.

Help - journal articles

The following guides will help you to develop your skills in finding journal articles:

Finding Journals

Critical thinking - what it is and why it matters.

Doing a Literature Search

Developing Keywords

Databases for your subject

Using databases for your subject

For more specialist searching use an online database

What are online databases?

Databases are specialist search engines that search for quality information, such as journal articles, in specific subject areas.

The databases below are listed in order of relevance for your subject. Hover over the icons to see what help is available.

For help searching the databases contact your Social Sciences, Humanities and Law information team. Details on the Home page

Please note that all databases are provided for educational use only.

Bibliography of British and Irish History This link opens in a new window
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The Bibliography of British and Irish History provides bibliographic data on historical writing dealing with the British Isles, and with the British Empire and Commonwealth, during all periods for which written documentation is available - from 55BC to the present.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
An archive of many of the core research journals in the fields primarily of humanities and social sciences.
Current journal issues are not included.
British History Online This link opens in a new window
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British History Online provides administrative and legal history sources relating to national and local government (excluding Parliament) and the development of British law.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography This link opens in a new window
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The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is the national record of men and women who have shaped British history and culture, worldwide, from the Romans to the 21st century. The Dictionary offers concise, up-to-date biographies written by named, specialist authors
19th Century UK Periodicals This link opens in a new window
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This collection covers the period 1800 to 1900. When complete it will make available full runs of nearly 600 titles, some of which exist only in a single copy.
British Periodicals Online This link opens in a new window
British Periodicals provides access to the searchable full text of hundreds of periodicals from the late 17th Century to the early 20th, comprising millions of high resolution facsimile page images. Topics covered include literature, philosophy, history, science, the social sciences, music, art, drama, archaeology and architecture
We have now added Collections III and IV to this database, providing selected material covering 1869 - 2005
Periodicals Archive Online This link opens in a new window
Periodicals Archive Online is an archive of hundreds of digitised journals published in the arts, humanities and social sciences. It provides researchers with access to more than 200 years of scholarship, spread across a wide variety of subject areas, direct from their computer.
Arts & Humanities Database This link opens in a new window
This database features hundreds of titles covering Art, Architecture, Design, History, Philosophy, Music, Literature, Theatre and Cultural Studies. It is designed to complement the following indexes: ABM, Avery, BHA, BHI, DAAI, Index Islamicus, MLA, Philosopher's Index and RILM

African Journals Online This link opens in a new window
African Journals Online (AJOL) hosts 372 Open Access Journals and has been working since 1998 to make African research accessible to African researchers and to the rest of the world.
Web of Science This link opens in a new window
An abstracting & indexing database covering over 12,000 journals via the Science Citation Index Expanded, the Social Sciences Citation Index, and the Arts and Humanities Citation Index. Conference proceedings for science and social sciences & humanities are also indexed