Research Guides: RELG 398: Senior Thesis Seminar (HC): Finding Articles

Finding Journal Articles

Journal articles provide in depth scholarly information. They are vetted and improved by peer review. They are usually fairly short in length and focused on discussing one specific issue. The following indexes are good places to find journal articles about religion.

Use the Find It button in these indexes to find out if the journal articles are available in the Tri-College libraries. If the journal is not listed in Tripod, use the Find It request form or the Interlibrary Loan Request Form on Tripod to have a copy of the article sent to you from another library.

Discipline-Specific Indexes

These indexes are particularly good for accessing the scholarly literature of a particular discipline, i.e., articles written by religion scholars, historians, anthropologists, or other kinds of researchers.

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.
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, conference proceedings, books, and book reviews from 1906 to present.
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.
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.
Anthropology Plus
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Use this database to find scholarly journal articles in Anthropology.
Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA and RILA) This link opens in a new window
Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA) and Répertoire international de la littérature de l'art (RILA). Abstracts of journal articles, books, conference proceedings, dissertations and exhibition and dealers' catalogs. Includes European and American art from late antiquity to the present. Covers material published between 1975-2007. Use International Bibliography of Art for coverage of publications after 2007.

America: History & Life
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Indexes journal articles and book reviews covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada, from prehistory to the present. Covers international scholarship in more than 40 languages.

JSTOR
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Provides full-text and page images from many of the top journals in most academic disciplines. Coverage is from the inception of the journal through three to five years ago.
ProQuest Research Library
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Provides citations and full-text magazine and journal articles in a wide variety of disciplines, both scholarly and popular in scope. Covers 1971-present.

Tripod: Articles
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Articles searches millions of journal articles, many of them in full text and available through the Tri-College Libraries. While it doesn't provide access to everything the library has to offer, it is a good starting point for your searches.

Feminae This link opens in a new window
Provides abstracts and/or citation information to journal articles, book reviews and essays about women, sexuality and gender in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, from 450 C.E. to 1500 C.E. Covers materials published since 1990.

Religion Compass

This journal is devoted to the study of religion, and all of the articles are written in the form of literature reviews. Specialists analyze the issues involved in a particular question and discuss individual books, journal articles, and other scholarship that are essential for research in that area. Browse or search the journal website for overviews related to your research topic. The bibliographies accompanying articles in Religion Compass will lead you to relevant sources for further reading. Other Compass titles, like History Compass and Literature Compass, may have useful articles as well.

If you don't find a relevant literature review in History Compass, check for titles in Dissertations and Theses (see below). Most doctoral students will write a chapter of their dissertation in which they survey the available scholarship on their topic.

Religion Compass

Cited References-for finding publications that cite a scholar's work

Google Scholar
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Search for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports in all disciplines. Linked to Tripod.
Arts & Humanities Citation Index
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Citations to many humanities journals and relevant articles on arts/humanities.
Even though it has "Science" in its name, this database also covers the humanities and social sciences.
Search in a more specific manner on this database.
Click on "Cited Reference Search" (and not "Basic Search").
Find an author, for instance, and be sure to search in the following way: Last Name First Initial* (note: no comma, no full first name, just initial with an asterisk after it).
On the bottom where it says "more settings," UNCLICK Science Citation Index and Conference Proceedings for Science.

Don't Forget!

When you have a selected book or article, check out their bibliography and their footnotes/endnotes. This will help you add to your growing list of articles and other sources.

Having TROUBLE finding an article? For journal articles not available in the three colleges, use the Article Delivery form. In around 3 days you will receive a digital copy of the requested articles in your email.

Additional Subject Databases

RAMBI: Index of Articles on Jewish Studies This link opens in a new window
Offers citations to articles in the field of Jewish Studies and in the study of Eretz Israel. Material comes mainly from the holdings of the Jewish National and University Library. Covers 1966-present.
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.
PubMed
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Free database of biomedical and related life and behavioral sciences journal articles. Includes MEDLINE index and links to PubMed Central open access articles when available.
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.
ProQuest Performing Arts Database‎
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This database, formerly known as "International Index to the Performing Arts" provides abstracts and full-text to journal articles. Covers a broad spectrum of the arts and entertainment industry including dance, film, television, theater, opera, and broadcasting. Covers 1864-present.
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.
ARTstor
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A digital library that provides access to thousands of digital images derived from a variety of museum, library and archival collections. Images support a variety of disciplines including architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, and design. Coverage varies.
ARTbibliographies Modern
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Abstracts of articles, books, exhibition catalogs and reviews of modern and contemporary art (late 1960s on) including photography, sculpture and art history and theory.
Film Literature Index This link opens in a new window
The most important index for Film Studies. Offers citations to articles, film reviews and book reviews from film and television journals from 30 countries. The journals range from scholarly to popular titles. Covers the years between 1976-2001. (The print version of this index covers 1973-2004.)