Use article databases to identify articles on a topic.  In some cases, you will be able to link directly from the article database to the full text of the article.  In other cases, you will need to search the title of the journal (not the author or title of the article) in the online catalog to find out where it is located.

“Article databases” include indexing and abstracting sources, both online and “print” (or paper), as well as the online full-text sources, and those online databases offering a mix of abstracts and full text. 

There are many online article databases you can use to find scholarly articles on historical topics.  These can yield secondary or primary sources, depending on how you have formulated your research topic.  You may need to search several databases and indexes to find a range of articles on your topic.   A comprehensive search may include both print and online indexes. 

The main list of online article databases available through the Library Gateway is at http://www.library.uiuc.edu/orr/   (or select “Article Indexes and Abstracts” from the main Library Gateway page).  Note that with only a few exceptions, this list includes only those databases to which the Library subscribes.  Non-subscription databases in a given subject area are usually listed on the web site of the associated departmental library.  Thus you will find the International Medieval Bibliography (which we pay for) on the main list of article databases, but not Labyrinth or Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index (both of which are free).   You will find the Times Literary Supplement (paid subscription) but not the New York Review of Books (free).  Labyrinth, Feminae, and the New York Review of Books are non-subscription databases, and you will find them linked from the History, Philosophy and Newspaper Library web site under Online Resources. http://www.library.uiuc.edu/hix/online.html

Historical Abstracts is the counterpart to America: History and Life, covering articles, book reviews, and dissertations published since 1954 on all aspects of world history, excluding North America, from 1450 to the present.

To search America: History and Life or Historical Abstracts, start at the Library Gateway (http://www.library.uiuc.edu/index.html/) and choose “Article Indexes and Abstracts” under Online Research Resources.  Click on “Article Indexes & Abstracts” to make it the active tab, then type “America History” or “Historical Abstracts” in the search box.  Or you can use the "Quick Links" page on the History, Philosophy and NewspaperLibrary web site (http://www.library.uiuc.edu/hix/index.html).  

For medievalists, a good starting place is the International Medieval Bibliography, which indexes and abstracts articles published since 1968 on the history of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa from 400 to 1500).  Iter: Gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance offers indexing of articles and book reviews (19th century - ), as well as collections of essays (1996- ).  Both of these databases (and all others listed below except as noted) are available from the Library Gateway (http://www.library.uiuc.edu/orr).  Choose “Article Indexes and Abstracts” under Online Research Resources.  Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index (in progress, 1990- ), available from the History, Philosophy and Newspaper Library web site (http://www.library.uiuc.edu/hix/online.html),  may also be of interest.

There are several specialized or multidisciplinary article databases that provide indexing of scholarly articles on historical topics.  Expanded Academic ASAP (1980- ), Nineteenth-Century Masterfile, and Periodical Contents Index/Full Text (with a mix of North American and West European journals, 18th century – 1991) are broadly multidisciplinary and cover a range of journals in the social sciences and humanities.  Nineteenth-Century Masterfile  combines several key periodical indexes covering the 19th century, including Index to Legal Periodical Literature, 1786-1922; Poole’s Index to Periodical Literature, 1802-1907; and several indexes for general and religious periodical literature of the late 19th century. 

Other potentially useful multidisciplinary article databases include Humanities Abstracts (1984- ), Social Sciences Abstracts (1984- ), Left Index (1982- ), Alternative Press Index (1991- ), Internationale Bibliographie der Zeitschriftenliteratur or IBZ (emphasis on German journals, 1983- ),  and Francis (emphasis on French journals, 1984- ).  Most of these periodical databases provide only indexing and abstracting, but some do selectively provide full text of articles as well (e.g., Expanded Academic ASAP and Periodical Contents Index/Full Text).

There are many more specialized article databases that might be useful, depending on your topic, time period, and geographical region.  For area studies, consult the American Bibliography of Slavic and East European Studies, or ABSEES (1990- ), the Russian Academy of Sciences Database (1986- ), Handbook of Latin American Studies (1936- ), Hispanic-American Periodicals Index (1970- ), Index Islamicus (1906- ), Bibliography of Asian Studies (1971- ), Chicano Database (1960s- ), Gender Watch (1970s- ), and the African Studies Centre Database (1988- ).  All of these databases are accessible from the Library Gateway at http://www.library.uiuc.edu/orr/.  ViVa, a women’s history index compiled at the International Institute of Social History (1975- ), and RAMBI (Index of Articles in Jewish Studies) (1985- ) are available from the History, Philosophy and Newspaper Library web site (http://www.library.uiuc.edu/hix/online.html).  

Article databases designed for other disciplines may also be useful to historians. Examples include Philosopher’s Index (1940- ), ATLA (American Theological LibraryAssociation) Religion Database (1949- ), Anthropological Index (1957- ), Anthropological Literature (19th century- ), FIAF International Film Archive Database (1972- ), MLA or Modern Languages Association International Bibliography (1967- ), Bibliography of the History of Art (1973- ), Art Abstracts (1983- ), Art Full Text (with indexing from 1984, abstracts from1994, and full text from1997),  EconLit (1969- ),  Access UN (1948-),  Lexis-Nexis, and Legal Trac (1980- ).  WorksOnWork  (1985- ), a database on labor and industrial relations compiled at the University of Minnesota, is available on the History, Philosophy and NewspaperLibrary web site (http://www.library.uiuc.edu/hix/online.html).Finally, LaborLit is a locally produced database containing references to material (books, journal articles, pamphlets, theses, government publications, working papers, etc.) received in the Labor and Industrial Relations Library since January 1989.   LaborLit is accessible from the Labor and Industrial Relations Library web site at http://www.library.uiuc.edu/irx/.

There are several major collections of full-text electronic journals.  For older journals, use JSTOR ("journal storage").  This is a digitized, fully searchable version of the full content of nearly 400 scholarly journals from their inception (sometimes as early as the 18th century) to the late1990s or 2000 (recent issues excluded).  To get to JSTOR, go to the "Quick Links" (http://www.library.uiuc.edu/hix/index.html) on the History, Philosophy and Newspaper Library web site, or go to “Online Resources” from the Library Gateway (http://www.library.uiuc.edu/orr/) and type JSTOR in the search box from the “Article Indexes & Abstracts” tab.  Several major historical journals are included in JSTOR, such as

In addition to the links provided from America: History and Life and Historical Abstracts, you can search JSTOR directly.  Because itis a collection of digitized texts rather than an abstracting/indexing service (and does not employ subject descriptors), careful selection of search terms and fields is essential.  In the absence of subject headings, subject searches are built on keywords, so it is prudent to try several different approaches for any given topic.  Note that only about 10% of the articles in JSTOR have abstracts, so limiting your search term to the abstracts might cause you to miss relevant material.  When a Boolean keyword search produces a large set of results, try using the proximity (“near”) operator to limit the results to a combination of terms occurring within 10 or 25 words of one another.

For the full text of many (over 200) recent scholarly journals, use Project Muse.  These too are fully searchable.  In most cases, only the issues from the last few years are available.  Here you will find, for example,

To get to Project Muse, go to the "Quick Links" on the History and Philosophy Library web site, or go to Online Resources from the Library Gateway (http://www.library.uiuc.edu/orr/) and type Project Muse in the search box from the “Journals and Newspapers” tab.

The full text of recent issues of 18 scholarly journals in history is available through the History Cooperative, a joint project of the University of Illinois Press, National Academy Press, American Historical Association, and the Organization of American Historians. Included are:

To get to the History Cooperative, go to the "Quick Links" on the History, Philosophy and Newspaper Library web site (http://www.library.uiuc.edu/hix/index.html).

An important collection of 1,100 periodicals, published between 1741 and 1900, entitled American Periodical Series, is available as American Periodical Series Online.  The UIUC Library owns this collection on microfilm (2700 reels in the Newspaper Library), but of course it is much easier to use in its new digital version, since the text is fully searchable.  The collection includes newspapers as well as other periodical publications.  The articles in all 1,100 periodicals in the database are fully searchable by keyword, but there is no subject indexing, so you have to be careful to construct your searches using the language of the original articles (e.g., terms in use in the 19th and early 20th centuries, rather than contemporary terms and concepts).  To get to American Periodical Series Online, go to “Quick Links” on the History, Philosophy and Newspaper Library web site (http://www.library.uiuc.edu/hix/index.html) or type the title in the search box from the “Article Indexes and Abstracts” tab on the Online Research Resources page (http://www.library.uiuc.edu/orr/).