Guides: HIS 646: The Ancient Greece & Roman World: Databases & Scholarly Articles

History Databases

JSTOR This link opens in a new window
A collection of core scholarly journals, many going back to the first volume. Emphasis is on back issue coverage and does not include the current 3-5 years, unless Gordon has a current subscription to the journal. JSTOR provides long term preservation for journals.
Academic OneFile This link opens in a new window
Provides millions of articles from over 17,000 scholarly journals and other authoritative sources—including thousands of podcasts and transcripts from NPR and CNN as well as videos from BBC Worldwide Learning. Includes extensive coverage in key subject areas such as biology, chemistry, economics, environmental science, history, marketing, political science, and psychology.
Gale in Context: World History This link opens in a new window
Reliable information on people, events, and topics in world history from reference books, journals, news articles, and primary source documents. Includes images, multimedia, and links to vetted websites and covers a range of topics such as Aztecs, Industrial Revolution, Silk Road, the Buddha, Space Race, and more.
Formerly called World History in Context

Journals available at Jenks

Jenks Library has many academic journals covering topics in history available to you. Below are just a few online examples of places to begin. Search Journal Finder or browse the Arts & Humanities subject area in BrowZine for more journals!

Journal of Roman Studies
Papers on the study of history, archaeology, literature and art of Italy and the Roman Empire from earliest times to about A.D. 700; literary, archaeological and art historical topics, issues of cultural and intellectual history.
Greece & Rome
Scholarly articles, original discoveries in literary criticism, social and economic history, archaeology and art history and the development of ideas addressed to those interested in Classical Civilization.

Please note there is a 6 year embargo on this title, which means immediate access to current articles is not available at Jenks, but can be obtained through Interlibrary Loan.
Journal of Hellenic Studies
Articles, notes, book reviews and lists of books received on all aspects of Greek scholarship published for members of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies.

Tips for Searching in Library Databases

WHAT CAN I FIND IN A LIBRARY DATABASE?
Library databases are best used for searching for peer-reviewed journal articles. For research in history, best bet databases to use are JSTOR or Academic Search Complete. See the Peer-Reviewed box at the bottom of this page for more information on what it means and how to find those articles.

KEYWORDS
The building block of a library database search is keywords. Keywords are central ideas or terms within your research question or problem. For example, if we were exploring the topic: Roman architectural advancement's relationship to the importance of public health and hygiene in the Roman culture, we might extract the following keywords: Rome, architecture, public health, hygiene.

BOOLEAN SEARCH OPERATORS
Once you have your keywords identified (2-3 is a good place to begin), you then need to connect them together in a way the database understands how to search. This is done using the Boolean search operators AND, OR, and NOT. Connecting keywords using these search operators creates a search string. For example: rome AND architecture AND public health OR hygiene.

AND - narrow search, used to combine terms together and focus search results
OR - broad search, used to includes results that contain similar or like words, such as synonyms
NOT - narrow search by exclusion, used to exclude results containing a particular keyword

ENTER KEYWORDS IN DATABASE SEARCH BOXES

Enter each keyword onto its own search line. If you have an OR string, include the entire string in one search box.

What Does Peer-Reviewed Mean?

An article is considered "peer-reviewed" if it has been reviewed by scholars and professionals within the field of study for which the article was written. This process involves reviewing how the article was written and also the research involved in the study. The review process involves an extensive exchange between the review panel and the author(s) and the article can only be considered for publication in a scholarly journal once it has been approved.

Ask yourself the following questions about the article you are viewing to determine if it is peer-reviewed:

Does the article contain an abstract?
Does the article contain a full bibliography?
Are the author(s') credentials easily identified?
Does the journal contain little to no advertising?
Is the language of the article intended for an informed
audience?
Is the article lengthy?
Does the journal description include the words "peer-reviewed" or "editorial process."

FINDING PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLES
Many of our databases make the process of locating peer-reviewed information very easy for us by providing a "Peer-Reviewed" checkbox limiter on the search screen. Look for that checkbox when you're searching in library databases!

Peer-Reviewed Sources
Use this information sheet for criteria to look for in a peer-reviewed article.