LibGuides: ENGL 1212-002: First-Year Writing, The Americas (Watson): Scholarly Articles

Finding Scholarly Sources

Finding scholarly sources

Use encyclopedias to find articles: Encyclopedias contain bibliographies, which can help you track down important and reliable sources to use and cite in your research. Encyclopedias are also useful for finding names of scholars on a particular topic, and can be an excellent source for keywords for your searches.
Use relevant scholarly articles to find related scholarly articles: When you find an article that applies to the core of your topic, it's useful to look at the footnotes and bibliography to find additional sources for your research.
Search academic databases: I have listed a number of relevant academic databases to use in your searching. Each of these contains a huge number of scholarly articles. Databases like Google Scholar, Proquest and EbscoHost are quite broad in their focus, while others like Black Studies Center and Hapi Online have targeted and sometimes unique coverage. It is sometimes best to start with a larger database to get a feel for what is out there, and moved to smaller and more targeted databases to refine your searching.

General Scholarly Journal Databases

EBSCOhost research databases
Allows you to search simultaneously across more than one hundred databases in a variety of fields. Includes key databases in Art, Architecture, Business, History, Education, Psychology, Religion, Social Sciences, and Science.
Google Scholar
Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations. It is also very useful for seeing if other scholars have cited a book, article, etc. Search on the title, and then follow the "Cited by ..." link.
JSTOR
Provides page images of back issues of the core scholarly journals in the humanities and social sciences from the earliest issues to within a few years of current publication. Users may browse by journal title or discipline, or may search the full-text or citations/abstracts. New issues of existing titles and new titles are added on an ongoing basis.
OmniFile Full Text Mega (H.W. Wilson)
ProQuest
This resource includes citations and full text articles in academic & professional disciplines, e.g., business, economics, gender studies, health, literature, management, political science; as well as news and general interest items. Search multiple databases simultaneously or select individually from among ABI/INFORM (business); Accounting & tax; the American Medical Association; Dissertations; Ethnic NewsWatch, GenderWatch, Research Library, or major current and historical US newspapers (including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Boston Globe, LA Times, etc).

Topic Databases for The Americas

Academic Search Complete
Academic Search Complete is a comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary, full-text database, with more than 6,100 full-text periodicals, including more than 5,100 peer-reviewed journals. In addition to full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for more than 10,100 journals and a total of more than 10,600 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc. The database features PDF content going back as far as 1887, with the majority of full text titles in searchable PDF format. Searchable cited references are provided.
America: History & Life with Full Text
Index of literature covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada, from prehistory to the present. The database indexes journals from 1964 to present and includes citations and links to book and media reviews.
Black Studies Center
"A fully cross-searchable gateway to Black Studies including scholarly essays, recent periodicals, historical newspaper articles, reference books, and much more. It combines essential resources for research and teaching in Black Studies, including The Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience, Index to Black Periodicals Full Text, Black Literature Index, and the Chicago Defender historical newspaper from 1912-1975."
Gender Studies Database
Gender Studies Database, produced by National Information Services Corporation (NISC), combines NISC's popular Women's Studies International and Men's Studies databases with the coverage of sexual diversity issues. GSD covers the full spectrum of gender-engaged scholarship inside and outside academia.

Handbook of Latin American Studies
Contains scholarly assessments of publications related to Latin America, from the 1930s to the present, including books, articles, maps, e-resources, and more.

Humanities Full Text
Brings full text (starting 1995) plus abstracts and bibliographic indexes (starting 1984) of noted scholarly sources in the humanities, as well as lesser known specialized magazines. The database indexes, abstracts and delivers the full text of feature articles, interviews, obituaries, bibliographies, original works of fiction, drama, and poetry, book reviews, and reviews of ballets, dance programs, motion pictures, musicals, operas, plays, radio and television programs.
Historical Abstracts with Full Text
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, and history of education. Provides selective indexing of historical articles from more than 1,800 journals in over 40 languages back to 1955 as well as the full text of more than 300 journals and over 130 books.
MLA International Bibliography
Indexes critical materials on literature, languages, linguistics, and folklore. Proved access to citations from worldwide publications, including periodicals, books, essay collections, working papers, proceedings, dissertations and bibliographies.
Project Muse
Full-text versions of peer-reviewed journals from many of the world's leading university presses and scholarly societies, as well as thousands of ebooks, with emphasis on humanities and social sciences.

ENGL 1212-002: First-Year Writing, The Americas (Watson)

Research Librarian

Spanish Language Dictionaries

Evaluating Scholarly Sources

Finding Scholarly Sources

Finding scholarly sources

General Scholarly Journal Databases

Topic Databases for The Americas