Find Scholarly Articles on Your Topic
Scholarly articles are usually defined as peer reviewed, but some scholarly articles undergo a different yet still rigorous editorial review process. These may also be known as academic articles. In all cases, these articles are considered secondary sources.
The main database for scholarly articles in American history is:
- America: History and Life with Full Text This link opens in a new windowThis database covers the history and culture of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. With selective indexing for 1,700 journals from 1964 to the present, this database also provides full-text coverage of more than 196 journals and more than 92 books.
Also could help, depending on your topic:
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowProvides image and full-text online access to back issues of selected scholarly journals in history, economics, political science, demography, mathematics, biology, and other fields of the humanities, social sciences, and life sciences. Consult the online tables of contents for holdings, as coverage varies for each title. Updated monthly.
- Women's Studies International This link opens in a new windowThe ultimate women's studies resource! Includes over 540,000 records drawn from a variety of essential women's studies databases. 1972-present.
- Oxford African American Studies Center This link opens in a new windowProvides access to more than 7,500 articles focusing on African American history and culture. The articles come from major reference sources and are written by leading scholars in the field. Also includes primary sources, images, and maps.
- Black Studies Center This link opens in a new windowFully cross-searchable gateway to Black studies including scholarly essays, recent periodicals, historical newspaper articles, and much more. It combines several resources such as Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience, International Index to Black Periodicals (IIBP), Black Literature Index, and historical black newspapers such as the Chicago Defender (1910-1975) and the Daily Defender (1956-1975).
Tips for Searching America: History & Life
Many library databases will present you with this general structure for Advanced Searching. The idea is to use a box for each component idea in your research topic. If, for example, you wanted to find articles about nursing during the Civil War, you would use 2 boxes like this:
The * picks up variations in the word, nurse, nurses, nursing. Could be critical!
In addition to scholarly journal articles, you could get dissertations, reviews of books, even some more popular history magazines. And, there are even some sources back into the late 19th century!
Find Full PDF
We call the full PDF of an article or book chapter the "full text." Look for the Find it @ SCU Libraries button or link in most SCU Library databases to easily get connected with the full text of the item you're interested in. When in doubt, submit an Interlibrary Loan request for the item or chat with a librarian (24/7).
- Interlibrary LoanA library service that obtains articles/book chapters from libraries outside of the LINK+ network.