History: Articles

• Choose a database that publishes articles relevant to the subject you are researching by selecting "Find Articles" and then "Databases by subject". A list of subject offerings appear and each link corresponds to a list of suggested databases

• Consult the help section available on a given electronic database to understand its features and to get search tips for that specific database.

• Specify limiters before you enter search terms. For example: check off "Scholarly Peer Reviewed" or specify "English" as a preferred language in the advanced search screen.

• If you are finding too many results, your search terms might be too broad. Search the databases "thesaurus" or "subject term" section to find the language used within the database for your search topic

• If your searches are producing too few results, your search terms might be too narrow. Replace one or more of your search terms with broader terms and see what happens

• Search for "Subject terms" or find the "Thesaurus" to find the right terms to put in the search box

• Use the citations listed in bibliographies of useful articles to find more articles for your research paper

For a full list of relevant databases click here.

Quick links to suggested databases:

Journal articles are the most current material on a topic for the year in which they were written. Remember a journal article written in 1979 was the most current information on the topic in the year 1979 – it is no longer current in 2012. In the field of History and Historical Research, relevant material can be as much as 20 years old so even if the material is no longer current it can still be relevant. Just remember that if you use older journal material you need to balance it out with relevant material from the last six years otherwise you will be missing out on the whole picture created by the researchers in your topic. Don’t forget that journal articles have bibliographies which can lead you to additional resources that will help you with your research. To use someone else’s bibliography to locate potentially useful citations is not plagiarising. This is how research is conducted.