LibGuides: History Subject Resource Guide: Find Articles

Some definitions (types of articles)

Scholarly (or academic) journals Articles in these journals are authored by academics or others that have experience and credentials in the field. The target audience is mainly academic. The journals are usually published by professional associations or university presses. Articles are research-based and provide extensive coverage of the topic. Scholarly journal articles cite their sources using footnotes/endnotes and reference lists. You can use these reference lists to locate additional resources on your topic!

Peer-reviewed articles or refereed articles have been reviewed carefully by other credentialed researchers who are knowlegable about the topic.

Popular articles appear in newspapers and magazines. They are written for a general audience and the authors are usually not academics. They do not usually have footnotes/endnotes or reference lists.

Take a look at the link below--it may help you in distinguishing between the different types of articles.

Anatomy of a Scholarly Article (NC State University Libraries))

Find articles

Use WorldCat DISCOVERY to search across all of Hofstra University Library holdings and open access resources for print and electronic books, journal articles, videos, etc. You can limit your search to artilces by clicking on the ARTICLES tab. See the DISCOVERY page (left side of screen in navigation tabs) for more information and tip sheets.

Try the following databases to locate scholarly (academic) journal articles. Do you want peer-reviewed articles? Many of the databases will allow you to limit your searching to peer-reviewed articles. Click here to access the full list of Databases selected for History.

Academic Search Ultimate This link opens in a new window Developed to meet the increasing demands of scholarly research, Academic Search Ultimate offers students an unprecedented collection of peer-reviewed, full-text journals, including many journals indexed in leading citation indexes. Includes over 9,000 active full-text journals and magazines
America: History and Life This link opens in a new window Index of literature covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada, from prehistory to the present. With indexing for 1,700 journals from as far back as 1910.
Cambridge Journals Online This link opens in a new window Over 300 peer-reviewed academic journals for the global market, containing the latest research from a broad sweep of subject areas.
European Views of the Americas, 1493-1750 This link opens in a new window Indexes printed records about the Americas written in Europe before 1750.
HAPI (Hispanic American Periodical Index) This link opens in a new window Contains over 275,000 journal article citations about Central America, South America, the Caribbean, Mexico, Brazil, and Hispanics/Latinos in the United States.
Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new window Covers the history of the world (excluding the United States and Canada) from 1450 to the present, indexing more than 2,300 academic historical journals in over 40 languages back to 1955.
Iter Bibliography (Middle Ages and Renaissance) This link opens in a new window Includes secondary source material pertaining to the Middle Ages and Renaissance (400-1700). Citations for books and journal material (articles, reviews, review articles, bibliographies, catalogues, abstracts and discographies) are included, as are citations for dissertation abstracts and essays in books (including entries in conference proceedings, festschriften, encyclopedias and exhibition catalogues).
JSTOR This link opens in a new window Jstor is a digital archive of over one thousand five hundred academic journals and other scholarly content. Hofstra subscribes to several JSTOR collections and single titles.
Hofstra subscribes to JSTOR Arts & Sciences Collections I through VII, as well as the Life Sciences Collection and JSTOR 19th Century British Pamphlets
Oxford Academic Journals This link opens in a new window Includes over 230 academic and research journals covering a broad range of subject areas, two-thirds of which are published in collaboration with learned societies and other international organizations. From the Oxford University Press.
Politics Collection This link opens in a new window Includes the following two databases (direct links and descriptions under "see note" below): PAIS Index Policy File Index Political Science Database Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
Links for individual databases included in this collection:
- PAIS Index‎ (1914 - current):Includes PAIS International & PAIS Archive. PAIS International includes journal articles, books, government documents, statistical directories, grey literature, research reports, conference papers, web content, and more from over 120 countries throughout the world. In English and other languages. PAIS Archive includes monographs, periodical articles, notes and announcements, and analytics. Content relates to public and social policies, such as Prohibition, suffrage, pacifism, civil rights, McCarthyism, Vietnam War, and Watergate.
- Policy File Index‎ (1990 - current): resource for information on public policy issues with indexing and linking to the output of over 350 think tanks and similar organizations.
- Political Science Database‎ (1985 - current): Includes over 140 leading political science and international relations journals.
- Worldwide Political Science Abstracts‎ (1975 - current): Provides citations, abstracts, and indexing of the international serials literature in political science and its complementary fields, including international relations, law, and public administration & policy.
Project Muse This link opens in a new window Full-text of scholarly journals from over 120 university presses and scholarly societies in the humanities and social sciences.
Sage Journals Online This link opens in a new window Full text of journals spanning the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Science, Technology, and Medicine.

Try the following Databases to locate newspaper and magazine articles. Click here to access the full list of newspaper databases.

AAS Historical Periodicals Collection This link opens in a new window The entire AAS collection features over 7500 periodical titles from the seventeenth through the late nineteenth century.
Accessible Archives This link opens in a new window Diverse primary source materials reflecting broad views across American history and culture. These collections are encyclopedic in scope.
American Periodicals This link opens in a new window Includes digitized images of the pages of American magazines and journals published from colonial days to the 20th century. Consists of works published between 1740 and 1900. Includes journals, general interest magazines, children's publications, civil war periodicals and early professional journals.
Associated Press Images Collection This link opens in a new window contains over 4.6 million photographs dating back to 1826, tens of thousands of graphics, more than 4,500 hours of audio files dating from the 1920’s, and news stories and headlines dating from 1997. The content is primary source and is provided by The Associated Press.
Brooklyn Eagle This link opens in a new window Digitized version of The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, which was originally published from 1841 to 1955, then revived for a short time from 1960 to 1963.
Factiva This link opens in a new window General news and business articles including the full-text of the Wall Street Journal, company profiles, economic reports, and exchange rates.
Newsday Historical This link opens in a new window Coverage from 1940 to 1994.
New York Times (Gale) This link opens in a new window Full text of The New York Times (starting in 1985)
New York Times Historical This link opens in a new window Coverage of the New York Times from 1851 through 4 years prior to the current year.
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window Provides access to full-text news, business and legal publications.
Times (London) Digitial Archive This link opens in a new window Digital archive of the London Times, from 1785 to 1985.
Washington Post Recent This link opens in a new window The full-page images of this digitized newspaper provide genealogists, researchers and scholars with cover-to-cover access to recent newspaper content. Every page is full-text searchable. Coverage: 2008 - recent (3-month embargo).
Coverage: 2008 - recent (3-month embargo).

*FACTIVA HELP--get help with your searches by clicking on the EXAMPLES link to the left of the search box. To search using field tags (headline, byline, etc.) scroll to the NOTES section at end of EXAMPLES page and click on the link in the third bullet point. Make sure to use the DATE filter.

**NEXIS UNI HELP--Click on the HELP link at the top right of the Nexis Uni homepage or the Question Mark on the bottom left of the screen.

Become an expert searcher!! Check out the following handouts for advanced search strategies.

Factiva Search Commands This handout demonstrates how to use search commands to effectively locate needed information in FACTIVA.
Factiva Field Tags This handout demonstrates how to effectively use field tags to search Factiva
Nexis Commands at a Glance This handout describes how to use connectors and precision search commands in order to perform effective searches in Nexis Uni.

Did you know you can set up your own library in Google Scholar? Click here for instructions on setting it up--you will be able to save and organize your search results.

If the full text of the article you need is not available in the database you are currently searching, click on the or Find A Copy link that appears in your results list. This will take you to the database/s that contains the full text of the article you need. If we do not have access to the full text here at Hofstra you can use our Interlibrary Loan system (see the information contained under the next tab).

Use the JOURNALS tab to see if the Hofstra Library subscribes to specific newspapers, magazines or journals (e.g. New York Times, American Historical Review, etc.) or click on the Advanced Journal/Article search link to see if we have the full text of a specific article. You can also browse our list of journals.

If you require a book or journal article not available at Hofstra, you can use our Interlibrary Loan (ILL) service to request the material. Click on the link below. If you are a first-time user, you will be prompted to set up an account--it's easy and it's free--just remember to use your Hofstra network account.

Hofstra University Interlibrary Loan

Are you confused about where to go for what????? Hopefully, this will help!

You need to search for articles on a particular topic
- Use WorldCat DISCOVERY from the Library homepage. It is located directly under the image, DISCOVERY searches across all HU resources.
- You can also use the ARTICLES tab to search for full text electronic articles. Just be sure to check off RETAIN FILTERS when you modify your search.
- Type your keywords directly into the search box.
- Look at your results--items will be identified by material type.
- Use the filters on the left side of the screen to refine your results.
You need to search for articles within a particular publication (e.g. New York Times)
- Click on the JOURNALS tab from the homepage and type in the title of the newspaper, magazine or journal you need.
- The results list will display the databases that contain the full text of articles from that journal and the dates of coverage. You can click on the publication title to search within that journal.
You want to search within a particular database (e.g. Politics Collection, Historical Abstracts)
- From the homepage, simply click on BROWSE THE A TO Z LIST OF DATABASES under the DISCOVERY or JOURNALS tab.
- Our A to Z list of databases will appear.
- Clicking on the database name will bring you into that database--input your search.
You need to find a specific article (ex. your professor asks you to read a particular article, or you have a citation from a bibliography)
- From the homepage, simply click on the ARTICLES tab and then click on the Advanced Search link.
- Use the drop down menus to search for your article by title (of the article); author of the article and journal source (name of the journal).
- If we have the article, it will pop up; if not, use Interlibrary Loan.