Research Guides: HIST 347: China and the Early Modern World Order, 1500-1700 (HC): Journal 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 history.

Discipline-Specific Indexes

These indexes are particularly good for accessing the scholarly literature of specific disciplines, i.e., articles written by historians, Asian studies scholars, and literary scholars.

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.
Art Full Text
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Indexes journals, museum bulletins and yearbooks in the fields of art, architecture, decorative arts and photography.
ATLA Religion Database + ATLA Serials (American Theological Library Association)
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Indexes journals in the field of religion. Also covers book reviews and essays in religion as well as related fields.

Bibliography of British and Irish history
Indexes historical writing dealing with the British Isles, and with the British Empire and Commonwealth, during all periods of history.

EconLit
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Indexes and abstracts economic journal articles, book chapters, book reviews, dissertations, and working papers. Topics include economic theory and history and consumption.
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.
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.
Women's Studies International
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Indexes and abstracts journal articles, book chapters, dissertations and other publications in the core areas of women's studies. Subjects include gender and women's studies in all academic fields.

Porcelain Exportware

Blue and white porcelain with European scene and French inscription

1690-1700 (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

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.

Web of Science Citation Databases
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When you connect, open the Basic Search tab to find the Cited Reference Search link 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 material citing the title you have entered.
Bonus Google Scholar includes books in its results. Web of Science is limited to journal articles only.