Research Guides: HIST 350: Decolonial Histories of Mathematics and Astronomy (HC): Journal Articles

Indexes

Journal articles and other periodical publications provide scholarly information on specific aspects of history and the history of science. Since articles are generally published on a shorter schedule than books, they can be more-up-to-date. The following indexes are the best ways for you to identify journal articles:

History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
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Key resource for the history of science. Indexes the scholarly literature including journal articles and chapter-length material from books.

Historical Abstracts
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Provides abstracts of journal articles, books, book reviews and dissertations that cover world history from 1450 to the present (excluding the U.S. and Canada which are covered in "America: History and Life"). Includes publications from 1953-present.
Swarthmore has access to the full text.
International Medieval Bibliography Online
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Provides abstracts and citations to articles on medieval subjects in journals, Festschriften, conference proceedings, and collected essays. Covers all aspects of medieval studies within the period 450 to 1500 for Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

Specific Subjects

There are also indexes devoted to other subject areas that may be of use for specific topics:

Bibliography of Asian Studies
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Indexes journal articles, book chapters, and conference proceedings on all subjects pertaining to East, Southeast, and South Asia. Covers publications from 1971 to the present.
Index Islamicus
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Indexes the literature on the Middle East and Muslim areas of Asia and Africa, and Muslim minorities elsewhere. Includes citations to journal articles, essays in books, conference proceedings, and book reviews from 1906 to the present.
International Bibliography of Art
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Provides coverage of scholarship on European art from late antiquity to the present, American art from the colonial era to the present, and global art since 1945; visual arts, decorative and applied arts, museum studies and conservation, archaeology and classical studies, antiques and architectural history; scholarship from 500 core journals, plus detailed coverage of monographs, essay collections, conference proceedings and exhibition catalogues. International coverage, with at least 60% of records from non-English-language publications.
MLA International Bibliography
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Database of scholarly books and articles related to literature, language, linguistics, film, theater and folklore. Includes scholarship from 1926 to the present.
Philosopher's Index
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Provides citations and abstracts of journal articles, books, anthology contributions and book reviews published worldwide. Topics covered include: ethics, aesthetics, social philosophy, political philosophy, epistemology, philosophy of law, religion, science, history, education, and language. Covers 1940-present. Contains over 328,000 records as of August 2005. Monitors over 550 journals from more than 40 countries.

Tracking Citations Forward in Time

Usually researchers find more sources by looking at the footnotes in an article or book, but these will always be older than the publication you have in hand. Citation indexes like the Web of Science (which includes sections for the Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, and Science) are set up to search for sources cited in the footnotes of journal articles as soon as they become available.

This allows you to find newer articles which cite the books and articles you already know are key for your topic. By relying on connections between authors rather than subject words and by moving forward in time, citation searching can open up new avenues of research.

See this tutorial for more information on cited reference searching.

Web of Science Citation Databases
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When you connect, open the Basic Search tab and choose the Cited Reference Search to begin.
Enter the author's name: Last name first, First name initial only with asterisk.
Skip Cited Title box.
Put the publication year in the Cited Year box.
Under Current Limits, open Citation Databases and uncheck Science Citation Index and Conference Proceedings Science.
On the next screen choose the relevant results based on the Cited Work titles.
The results screen shows the newest articles first. Most records include a summary of contents, so that you can determine how relevant they may be for your research.
Google Scholar
To search for cited references in Google Scholar, enter the title of the article or book in quotation marks.
In the results list, check the link Cited by [number] for both books and journal articles which cite the title you have entered.