Research guides: POL401 Senior Major Research Paper: Journal Articles

Finding Articles in Databases

Use the databases below to find scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles for your assignments.

Political Science:

WorldWide Political Science Abstracts
A major index to journals in political science and its complementary fields, including international relations, law, and public administration.
PAIS Index
PAIS International offers access to the international literature in public affairs, public and social policies, and international relations. It is an important index for its coverage of government documents, publications of international agencies, statistical directories, grey literature, research reports, conference reports, microfiche, and Internet material, as well as journal articles, books and articles in books from more than 120 countries worldwide.
Columbia International Affairs Online
This resource indexes "documents and articles devoted to research, analysis, and scholarship on international politics and related fields, including security studies, global finance, diplomatic practice, humanitarian law, global governance, development studies, and environmental studies." In includes "full-text articles from government research organizations, independent think tanks, university analysis centers, and scholarly journals", as well as "working papers, policy briefs, and current analysis and commentary, as well as scholarly journal articles, e-books, and videos. "

History:

Historical Abstracts
Historical Abstracts covers the history of the world (excluding the United States and Canada) from 1450 to the present, including world history, military history, women's history, history of education, and more. This database provides indexing of more than 2,300 academic historical journals in over 40 languages back to 1955.
America: History and Life
The major source for United States and Canadian history and culture from prehistoric times to the present. It is an excellent source for research in the fields of American history, Canadian history, popular culture, American studies, women's studies/gender studies, multicultural studies, politics and other fields of study.

Sociology:

Sociological Abstracts
This database covers the international literature of sociology, social work, and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. It includes journal articles, books, book chapters, dissertations, conference papers, and working papers from 1952 to the present.

Gender Studies:

Contemporary Women's Issues
"The database offers access to full text content covering topics including civil rights, health, education, professional development, and entrepreneurship."
Gender Studies Database
Provides interdisciplinary coverage of gender-related topics including women's studies, men's studies, ethnic studies, health issues, and sexual diversity.

Communications:

Communication Abstracts
Communication Abstracts indexes communication-related publications on a world-wide scale. It covers topics related to communication, mass media, and other closely-related fields of study.

Islamic Studies:

Index Islamicus
This database indexes publications on Islamic subjects throughout the world. Records are from 1906 to the present. The scope includes the Middle East, the Muslim areas of Asia and Africa, plus Muslim minorities elsewhere in the world. Over 3,000 journals are monitored for inclusion, together with conference proceedings, monographs, multi-authored works and book reviews. Journals and books are indexed down to the article and chapter level.

Literature:

MLA International Bibliography
This database indexes scholarly books and articles on modern languages, literatures, folklore and linguistics which has been compiled by the Modern Language Association of America since 1926.

Classical Studies

L'Annee Philologique
A specialized bibliographic database of scholarly works relating to all aspects of ancient Greek and Roman civilizations. Includes abstracts of journal articles and information on books.

Religion:

ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
It provides coverage from 1949 and retrospective indexing for "journal articles, book reviews, and collections of essays in all fields of religion."

Multi/Interdisciplinary databases in Social Sciences and Humanities:

Social Science Citation Index
Multidisciplinary database that indexes scholarly material in the social sciences from 1900 to the present.
International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS)
This database provides cross-disciplinary coverage across the social sciences, focused on four primary subject areas: anthropology, economics, political science and sociology from 1951 to the present. It covers international material from over 100 languages and countries.
Arts & Humanities Citation Index
Multidisciplinary index to the journal literature of the arts and humanities. Publication years are 1975 to the present. Part of the Web of Science Core Collection.
Humanities International Index
Database includes journals, books and other important reference sources in the humanities. Contains U.S. and international publications. Humanities International Index provides citations and abstracts for articles, essays and reviews, as well as original creative works including poems, fiction, photographs, paintings and illustrations.
JSTOR
"JSTOR provides access to more than 12 million academic journal articles, books, and primary sources in 75 disciplines. ***IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT RECENTLY PUBLISHED ISSUES OF JOURNALS (PAST 3-5 YEARS): In most cases, recently published issues of journals are not available through JSTOR."

Need help developing keywords? Check out the University of Houston Libraries' YouTube video and our Keyword Worksheet.

For help searching Sociological Abstracts and other ProQuest products, check out our YouTube video. The tips and tricks described in the video can be used in other databases. Click here for additional information on boolean operators (AND/OR/NOT), truncation (*), quotation marks (" "), and wildcard (?) searching.

For a list of other databases available at UofT, check out Subjects A-Z.

Peer Review

Not sure if your article is peer-reviewed? Check out our print guide or video below for instructions on how to search Ulrich's Periodical.

Print Guide:

Peer Review Check: Ulrichsweb

Video:

Google Scholar

For instructions on how to connect Google Scholar to UofT Library's resources, check out this link.

Before using an article, make sure to check whether it is peer reviewed. See the Peer Review box above for help.