LibGuides: History: Journal Articles

A-Z list of Journals

You will find a complete A-Z list of journals (online and in print form) for all subjects in iFind. At the top of the iFind screen click on:

Journal Search

Browzine

LibKey Nomad

LibKey Nomad
Download the browser extension to easily access full-text journal articles within our subscriptions when you are browsing the web and databases such as Scopus and PubMed.

Key Databases for finding journal articles

JSTOR This link opens in a new window
JSTOR contains the full text of journals, usually from their beginning up to about 5 years ago. In some cases a link to more recent years is given. It contains many journals for History.

JSTOR guide

Bibliography of British and Irish history This link opens in a new window
The Bibliography of British and Irish History is a guide to works on the history of Britain, Ireland and the British overseas. It covers books, articles and other writings published after 1901. It also has details of some books and articles published before 1901. It is updated three times a year. For many researchers in British History this is likely to be the most important electronic resource.

Bibliography of British and Irish history guide

International Medieval Bibliography This link opens in a new window
The international Medieval Bibliography is the leading interdisciplinary bibliography of the Middle Ages (400-1500). It provides details of over 300,000 articles published between 1967 and the present in journals, conference proceedings and essay collections.

Web of Science This link opens in a new window
A scientific citation indexing service that provides a comprehensive citation search. It gives access to multiple databases that reference cross-disciplinary research, which allows for in-depth exploration of specialised sub-fields within an academic or scientific discipline.

British Periodicals This link opens in a new window
This collection when complete will include 460 British journals published between 1681 and the 1930s. Topics covered include literature, philosophy, history, science, the fine arts and the social sciences.

Finding journal articles & using databases

Academic journal articles are an excellent source of scholarly information on your topic. Here are a few tips for finding journal articles:-

Articles on your reading lists will often have a link to let you read the text straightaway
Use the Articles & more search in iFind, especially if you know the name of the article you want
You'll find more relevant results if you search specialist databases - You can see some suggestions below.
Use the abstract (a summary of the article) to help you decide if an article is relevant for you

You can use iFind to locate journal articles on a topic or by a particular author, if you want to carry out a more thorough search it is better to use electronic databases. Some of these databases (e.g. JSTOR) contain full-text articles, while others (e.g Web of Science) contain only a citation (or record) and abstract (a summary) of the article. In this case, you will often see a 'iGetIt@Swansea University' link which you can click on to see if we hold the article here.

MyUni Library Essentials - Researching

iFind This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
iFind, the Library catalogue is the main way to search resources provided by Swansea University Library.

Keywords

Find the keywords for your topic or essay. Don’t type in a long sentence.
Are there synonyms or related terms (broader or more specific) that might be relevant

Getting more results

You can use a truncation symbol (usually an asterisk *) to find different endings to your keyword. For example, searching for read* would find read, reading, reads, etc.
You can find alternative terms simultaneously by linking them with or; for example, you could search for adolescent or teenager.

Getting fewer results

If you get too many results try searching just the title rather than the full record. You should get fewer, more relevant results.
Use quotation marks if you want your search terms to appear as a phrase.
Use 'and' to combine search terms
Use the refinement options and the searchwithin box to make your search more specific

Planning a literature search
This document is a prompt to help you think about resources and keywords for a literature search

Critically appraising your sources is a crucial element of any literature search. You need to consider is your sources are:

reliable
academic enough
Free from bias

Ask yourself the following questions about the information you have found.

Who?

Who is the author or organisation responsible for the information?
Are they qualified to write on this topic?

When?

Is the information out of date?
Does it matter?

What sort of information?

Is it opinion or fact?
Is it reliable and independent?
Is it academic/research-focussed or commercial?

Evaluating Results
This document is a resource you can use to help you evaluate items you have found.

Cannot find what you need?

Document Supply
If the resource you need for your research is not held in the Library, use the Document Supply Service to request an interlibrary loan. Please check the library catalogue iFind before requesting an interlibrary loan.