Research Guides: HIST 210: Biopower (HC): Journal Articles

Using Journal Articles

Selecting Journal Articles

Where was the article published? Does it come from a scholarly journal published by a university or connected with an organization for researchers?

What is the author's main argument? See the accompanying abstract or skim the first page or two of the article.

What are the author's qualifications? Look at the brief biographical sketch accompanying the article or check the web. What other articles and books has the author published?

When was the article published? Are there more recent articles that may incorporate newer evidence and interpretations?

Reading Journal Articles Critically

How does the author summarize previous scholarship on the questions involved? Thinking about this will add to your understanding of the broader historical context.

What disciplinary approach/es does the author take? For example, is the article written from the point of view of history or art? Are there interpretations from additional academic areas, like political science or law, introduced within an article that explores a particular question in history?

What makes this author's argument significant? What new ideas does this article offer?

What kinds of primary texts or visual sources does the author use? What evidence does the author offer to support the argument and how does the author interpret that evidence?

What are the author's conclusions? What concluding ideas does the author draws from their argument. Do you find it convincing? Are there questions that were not fully answered?

Indexes for History

Journal articles provide in-depth scholarly information. They are vetted and improved by peer review. They are usually fairly short in length and often focused on discussing one specific issue. They are well documented with footnotes citing relevant scholarship and primary sources. The indexes listed below are good places to find journal articles about history.

When you find an article of interest, if the full text is not immediately available, use the Find It button to check for Haverford's holdings. If we do not have a subscription for that journal, you will be able to request a digital copy.

See the Search Tips tab for examples of ways to develop terminology and construct search statements for journal index searching.

America: History and Life
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Use this database to find scholarly journal articles on United States and Canadian history. (For articles on non-US history topics, search the Historical Abstracts database instead.)
Bibliography of British and Irish history
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Indexes historical writing dealing with the British Isles, and with the British Empire and Commonwealth, during all periods for which written documentation is available - from 55 BCE to the present. In your search, specify the range of time for your topic.
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"). Be sure to specify the historical period you are researching.

History of Science, Technology and Medicine
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Key resource for the history of science. Indexes the scholarly literature in the fields of the history of science and medicine. It covers both journal articles and chapter-length material from books.

Indexes for Related Subject Areas

Art Full Text
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Offers abstracts of journals, museum bulletins and yearbooks in the fields of art, architecture, decorative arts and photography. Covers abstracts from 1929-present, full-text articles 1997-present.
ATLA Religion Database + ATLA Serials (American Theological Library Association)
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Provides online access to the entire core collection of more than fifty significant scholarly journals in the field of religion. Also provides citation information for journal articles, book reviews and essays for over 600 journals in the fields of religion and theology. Covers 1949-present.
EconLit
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Provides abstracts to economic journals, books, book reviews, dissertations, and working papers. Topics include economic theory and history, monetary theory, labor economics, international, regional and urban economics. Coverage 1969-present.
HeinOnline
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Provides searchable database of full text legal periodicals and primary documents. Subscribed libraries include: Law Journal Library, U.S. Congressional Documents, U.S. Federal Legislative History Library, U.S. Presidential Library, U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Supreme Court Library, and many others. Coverage for each periodical is from the beginning issue to the most current allowed under contract. Navigate to Help --> Knowledge Base to find helpful how-to articles and short training videos.
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.
Women's Studies International
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Provides citations and abstracts of journal articles, books, book chapters, newspapers, dissertations and bulletins, in the core areas of women's studies. Subjects include, feminism, women of color, science, health and technology. Includes different women's studies resources. Covers 1972-present.

Journal Indexes for World Regions and Cultural Groups

Africa-Wide
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Offers access to multi-disciplinary information on Africa including books, journal articles, maps and music recordings. Some materials are in full-text. Covers 19th century-present.
Bibliography of Asian Studies
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Provides citations to journal articles, book chapters, conference proceedings, anthologies, and Festshriften on all subjects pertaining to East, Southeast, and South Asia. Covers 1971-present. Complete citations end with the 1991 records. Since 1992, newly published books are no longer being added.
Bibliography of Indigenous Peoples in North America
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Focuses on all aspects of Indigenous culture, history, and life primarily in North America. Provides citations for newspapers, magazines, academic journals, books, reviews, and trade publications from the United States and Canada with expanded content from Great Britain and Australia.

Black Life in America: The Experience and Impact of African Americans as Recorded by the News Media
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Newly created resource. Delivers full texts and videos from more than 19,000 American and global news sources, including over 400 current and historical Black publications from 1704 to the present. To start use the Suggested Searches to find subtopics or enter a keyword search.
DialNet
This is a virtual library of Ibero-American scholarship, hosted by the University de la Rioja in Spain. It indexes more than 11,000 journals and 8+ million documents. There are a growing number of full-text articles available as content is continuously updated. All subjects covered. Texts are mainly in Spanish with Portuguese, Catalan, English and other languages also included.

HAPI: Hispanic American Periodicals Index
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Contains citations to scholarly journal articles published in Latin America, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, and to materials that address this region and U.S. Hispanic topics. Covers political, economic, and social issues. Some citations link to full-text articles. Covers 1970-present.

Hispanic Life in America
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Offers an expansive window 1704-2009 into Hispanic American history, culture, and daily life -- as well as the ways the dominant culture has portrayed and perceived people of Hispanic descent. The content in HLA is sourced from more than 17,000 American and global news sources, including over 700 Spanish-language or bilingual publications. The database covers many topical categories such as arts and entertainment, civil rights and activism, immigration and citizenship, sports and athletes, labor, religion, science and technology, and society and culture.
HLAS Online: Handbook of Latin American studies
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Covers books, book chapters, articles, and conference papers published in the field of Latin American studies and edited by the Hispanic Division of the Library of Congress. Good for material written in Spanish.

Index Islamicus
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Offers citations to literature on Islam, the Middle East and Muslim areas of Asia and Africa, and Muslim minorities elsewhere. Includes citations to journal articles, essays in books, and book reviews from 1906 to present.
Informe Académico
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Full-text database of Latin American academic journals in social sciences, humanities, science and medicine. Also covers popular Latin American and Hispanic magazines and newspapers.

Persée
Offers open access to French scholarly journals as well as books and conference proceedings. See also Cairn, a comprehensive collection of French language periodicals in the social sciences and humanities disciplines. Haverford does not have a subscription to Cairn, but it can be searched without a subscription for citations.

Publicaciones y Revistas Sociales y Humanísticas (PRISMA)
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Covers all aspects of Hispanic studies, from research on indigenous cultures past and present to current economic indicators, politics, society, and Hispanic theater. Disciplines covered include anthropology, economics, history, literature, political science and sociology. Includes works in English and Spanish.
RAMBI: Index of Articles on Jewish Studies This link opens in a new window
Offers citations to journal articles and essays in books relating to Jewish Studies and to Israel. Material comes mainly from the holdings of the Jewish National Library. Covers 1966-present.

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
When you connect, choose the Cited References option to begin.
Enter the author's name: Last name first, First name initial only with asterisk (e.g., Smith J*)
Skip Cited Work box
Put the publication year in the Cited Year(s) box
On the next screen, sort the results by Cited Work, choose the relevant results and hit "See Results."
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.
Use the search box and filters on the left to refine your results.
Note also the References link on the far right. It gives you an immediate view of the bibliographies from the Cited References you have just found.
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. The Related Articles may also offer useful sources.
Results example:
[BOOK] Erotic Exchanges: the world of elite prostitution in eighteenth-century Paris
N Kushner - 2013 - muse.jhu.edu
Summary: In Erotic Exchanges, Nina Kushner reveals the complex world of elite prostitution in eighteenth-century Paris by focusing on the professional mistresses who dominated it. In …
Cited by 50 Related articles