Research and Course Guides: HIST 365: Colonial North America: Articles & Journals

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Article databases

Academic Search Ultimate This link opens in a new window
Access thousands of full-text journals covering information spanning a broad range of important areas of academic study including: anthropology, biology, chemistry, engineering, law, mathematics, multicultural studies, music, physics, psychology, women's studies and many other fields.
EBSCO eBook Collection This link opens in a new window
Offers access to a multidisciplinary library of over 136,000 high quality, unlimited user ebooks from over 450 publishers. Collections include both academic and recreational ebooks.

Historical Abstracts
Covers the history of the world (excluding the United States and Canada) from 1450 to the present, including world history, military history, women's history, history of education, and much more.

JSTOR This link opens in a new window
A large digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources covering more than 50 disciplines primarily in the Arts & Sciences, Life Sciences, and Business. Coverage begins at the first issue of the journal and extends up to a publication date usually set in the past three to five years.
MasterFILE Complete This link opens in a new window
A collection of popular full-text magazines, reference books, videos, and other sources covering multiple subject areas.

New York Times Newspaper (1851-2011)
This historical newspaper provides genealogists, researchers and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society and events of the time. The Historical New York Times with Index (1851-1993) provides search capability using subject terms and topics for focused and targeted results in combination with searchable full text, full page, and article-level images from the Historical New York Times (1851-2007)

Project Gutenberg Online Catalog This link opens in a new window
Project Gutenberg is the first and largest single collection of free ebooks
ProQuest Central This link opens in a new window
Covering more than 160 subjects areas, this database includes scholarly journals, trade publications, magazines, books, newspapers, reports and videos.
Ebook Central This link opens in a new window
A collection of ebooks that spans all academic subject areas and grows at a rate of about 6,000 new titles per year.
Salem Press Online Titles This link opens in a new window
Multi-volume reference works published by Salem Press designed with a broad range of users in mind. Spiva Library's collection includes, Magill's Literary Annual, Critical Survey of Graphic Novels, Critical Survey of Long Fiction, Magill's Medical Guide, Milestone Documents of History and more.
SocIndex with Full Text This link opens in a new window
Provides information encompassing the broad spectrum of sociological study including all sub-disciplines and closely related areas of study.

Database Search Tips

Use Boolean Logic (AND, OR, NOT) to combine search concepts.

TOO FEW hits: OR to add synonyms; individual key words, NOT whole phrases; drop concept(s) with AND; truncate; consider other databases.

TOO MANY hits: AND another concept into search; use other available limiters in the database.

Truncation symbols (?, *, !, +) will provide variant spelling after the root word.

A wildcard (?, *) is a character that may be used in a search term to represent one or more other characters.

Do an advanced search and take advantage of the fields provided.

Use the subject headings/descriptors to find additional citations on your topic. If that does not work, use the keyword search.

You can also use limits (e.g., publication year, language, words in the title, etc.) to narrow your retrieval.

Set up an auto alert/RSS feed to monitor the research.

Evaluating Journals

CHARACTERISTICS	SCHOLARLY/PEER REVIEWED JOURNALS	GENERAL MAGAZINES
How to tell the difference between these two types of periodicals:
Content	Reports on original research; in-depth analysis of topics; statistical information; academic level book reviews; refereed or peer-reviewed	Current events and news; hot topics; brief, factual information; interviews
Length	Longer articles providing in-depth analysis of topics	Shorter articles providing broader overviews of topics
Authorship	Author usually an expert or specialist in the field; name and credentials always provided - researchers, academics, professors, scholars	Author usually a staff writer or a journalist; name and credentials often not provided
Language	Academic level writing & vocabulary; specialized language of the discipline; can be highly technical	Non-technical vocabulary; often simple language
Format/Structure	Articles usually more structured; may include these sections: abstract, literature review, methodology, results, conclusion, bibliography	Articles do not necessarily follow a specific format or structure
Editors	Editors/reviewers are experts in the same field as author(s); many participate in peer-review process prior to publication; rigorous publication standards; articles checked for content, format and style	Editors not academic experts in subject field of article; article topics often assigned or contracted; articles usually only edited for style and format
Publishers	Professional organizations; Universities, research institutes and scholarly presses	Commercial/trade publishers; corporate ownership
Special Features	Illustrations that support the text, such as tables of statistics, graphs, maps, or photographs	Illustrations with glossy or color photographs, usually for advertising purposes
Credits	A bibliography (works cited) and/or footnotes are always provided to document research thoroughly	A bibliography (works cited) is usually not provided; names of reports or references may be mentioned in the text; sources, when used, are rarely cited in full

Finding Film Reviews in Article Databases

Many databases contain reviews from magazines, newspapers, and journals. Before you start searching, it is helpful to know the year the film was released and the complete name of the film. After entering the name of the film (in quotations) in the search box, look for a limit to document type "Review" in the database advanced search pages. You can usually limit by date range too, if you want to see reviews published near the time of the film's release. If the review document type limiter is not available, add the term "review" to your keyword search.

Interlibrary Loan Request for Articles

If you need an article to which Spiva Library does not have full-text access, we can request a copy from another library using a service called InterLibrary Loan.

This service is available to all MSSU students, faculty, alumni, staff and community card holders.

InterLibrary Loan Policy

*a nominal service fee may
apply in some cases*