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

History Databases

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!

Tips for Searching Library Databases

Venn diagram of Boolean operators and, or, and not

Identify Keywords

The building block of a library database search is keywords. Keywords are central ideas or terms within your research question or problem. 

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. 

  • AND - narrow search, used to combine terms together and focus search results (college and artificial intelligence)
  • OR - broad search, used to includes results that contain similar or like words, such as synonyms (ChatGPT or artificial intelligence)
  • NOT - narrow search by exclusion, used to exclude results containing a particular keyword (gaming not gambling)

Enter Keywords in Database Search

Screenshot of search bar on EBSCO database.

  1. Enter your keywords, connected with the appropriate Boolean operator.
  2. Use the filters to narrow your results. Peer reviewed and full text are automatically selected, but you may want to narrow the results to those published in the last 10 years.

Using Search Results

  • Sort your search results by Date Newest so the most current information on a subject is at the top of your results.
  • Use the "Cited by" or "Cited References" features contained in many library databases to view a list of resources that have cited the particular article currently being viewed in their own work or are contained within the Reference list of the current article being viewed.

​Do not limit your search to just one database. Instead look at a variety of databases both subject specific and interdisciplinary to make sure you are viewing the full scope of literature published on your topic.

What Does Peer Reviewed Mean?

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 the article. This process involves reviewing how the article was written and the research involved. 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" search filter on the search screen. This search filter is automatically selected in our EBSCO databases.