Use a database to find journal articles on your topic. Key databases for History are listed below.

ousmane sembene

deepa mehta and women

india and widow*

west africa and female genital cutting

Use a database to find journal articles on your topic. Key databases for History are listed below.

Example topic:  What impact did the Industrial Revolution have on the position of women in English society?

1. What are the most important ideas in your topic? Brainstorm keywords. Look for synonyms, word variations, more specific words or examples, or broader terms.

industrial revolution     

women, women's, woman, female, girl, girls, gender

england, great britain, united kingdom

2. Put your keywords together in a search string:

women and industrial revolution

women* and industrial revolution

gender role* and industrial revolution

3. * (asterisk) finds different word endings (the symbol may vary from database to database)

women* finds women or women's

brit* finds britain or british

4. and focuses your search by finding articles with both terms in the record, e.g., women and industrial revolution

Example topic:  Discuss the role that the peasants played in the French Revolution.

'or' finds alternative words

(women* or girl* or gender) and industrial revolution and (england or brit*)

You can select the "Peer Reviewed" box to choose peer-reviewed articles only.

You can use Historical Abstracts options to choose a language or publication type.

To access an article from a citation in a database:

• If you see a [fulltext] link, select it.
• If you see a or SFX button, select it. This will link to the article online, if we have it. If we don't have it online, it will search the library catalogue for you to tell you if we have it in print.

To find an item from a bibliography:

• Method 1: Go to the library home page and enter your article title in the search box. It may help to put quotes on the title. This should find your article if it is online. 
• Method 2: Look up the name of the journal that the article is published in, in the library catalogue, to find out if we have it in print or online. Write down the name of the library, and the journal's call number in that library. Make sure we have the volume that you want. 

The first 2.5 minutes are helpful.