Research Guides: *History: Secondary Sources: Journal Articles

History Databases

The journal literature in history is divided geographically between two major databases: America: History & Life covers journal articles about the United States and Canada, and Historical Abstracts covers journal literature for world history outside the U.S. and Canada, 1450-present.

Don't forget that books are the most important publishing format for historians, so don't stop with journal articles in your research!

America: History and Life
Bibliographic database covering the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. America: History and Life is an index of literature covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada, from prehistory to the present. With indexing for 1,700 journals from as far back as 1910.
Abbreviation: americahistlife
Vendor: EBSCO
Coverage: 1910–Current
Subjects: African-American Studies, History, Women's and Gender Studies
Type: Indexes / Catalogs
Historical Abstracts
Abstracts and indexes journal articles covering countries other than the United States and Canada in the subject areas of history, the social sciences and humanities. The scope of coverage is World History (1450–present) and related areas including culture, diplomacy, economics, international relations and politics.
Abbreviation: hist-abs
Vendor: EBSCO
Coverage: 1964–Current
Subjects: Asian Studies, History, Middle Eastern Studies, Russian & Eastern European Studies, Women's and Gender Studies
Type: Indexes / Catalogs

There are also databases that specialize in scholarship of a particular geographic region, or an historical time period. Use the tabs above to browse these specialized databases.

JSTOR
JSTOR is a digital library of academic content in many formats and disciplines. The collections include top peer-reviewed scholarly journals as well as respected literary journals, academic monographs, research reports from trusted institutes, and diverse primary sources. FSU has access to JSTOR’s Archive, Artstor, Primary Sources, and Global Plants collections.
Tutorials:
JSTOR on YouTube
How to search (04:20)
Primary Source Collection: 19th-Century British Pamphlets (00:51)

Abbreviation: jstor
Vendor: JSTOR
Coverage: 1665–Current
Subjects: Arts Administration, Art History, *General / Multi-Subject
Type: E-Book Collections, E-Journal Collections

The following databases index journal articles and other scholarship specific to a geographic region. Select one that best fits your area of study. Keep in mind most of these are interdisciplinary, and thus not limited to the scholarship of historians.

Bibliographies (National Library of France)
These selective bibliographies (in French) mainly catalog materials held by the Reference library at the François Mitterrand Library (Site François-Mitterrand). Check the FSU Libraries catalog for local copies, or request a title using InterLibrary Loan (ILL).

Bibliography of Asian Studies
The Bibliography of Asian Studies (BAS) contains over 900,000 records on all subjects (especially in the humanities and the social sciences) pertaining to East, Southeast, and South Asia published worldwide. The disciplinary scope of the BAS is in general intended to cover the humanities, the social sciences, architecture and those natural sciences that have strong human components, such as medicine, public health, geology and the environment.
Abbreviation: bas
Vendor: EBSCO
Coverage: 1971–Current
Subjects: Asian Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature, Philosophy & Ethics, Religion
Type: Indexes / Catalogs
Chicano Database
Produced by the Ethnic Studies Library at the University of California, Berkeley, this index covers a wide range of materials focused on the Mexican-American and Chicano experience, as well as the broader Latino experience of Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans and Central American immigrants in the United States.
Abbreviation: chicano
Vendor: EBSCO
Coverage: 1960–Current
Subjects: History, Latin American & Caribbean Studies, Linguistics, Literature, Political Science
Type: Indexes / Catalogs
HAPI (Hispanic American Periodical Index)
Source for authoritative, worldwide information about Central and South America, Mexico, the Caribbean basin, the United States-Mexico border region, and Hispanics in the United States. HAPI currently provides over 100,000 links to the full text of articles appearing in more than 600 social science and humanities journals published throughout the world.
HAPI Stats:
- Number of records: 300,000+
- Number of full text links: 170,000+
- Coverage: 1970-
- Update frequency: daily
- Currently indexed journals: 380+
- Total journals in database: 675+
Abbreviation: hapi
Vendor: UCLA
Coverage: 1970–Current
Subjects: History, Latin American & Caribbean Studies, Sociology
Type: Indexes / Catalogs
Index Islamicus
The Index Islamicus database indexes literature on Islam, the Middle East and the Muslim world. It is produced by an editorial team working at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, established to transmit knowledge about Islamic and Middle East studies, which have traditionally been part of the curriculum of SOAS. Records included in the database cover almost 100 years of publications on the world of Islam.

Material cited in the Index Islamicus includes not only work written about the Middle East, but also about the other main Muslim areas of Asia and Africa, plus Muslim minorities elsewhere. Over 3,000 journals are monitored for inclusion in the database, together with conference proceedings, monographs, multi-authored works and book reviews. Journals and books are indexed down to the article and chapter level.
Subject coverage: Islam, Muslim, Middle East, Arab, Asia, Africa, History, Political science, Arts, Humanities

Abbreviation: iislam
Vendor: ProQuest
Subjects: Asian Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Religion
Type: Indexes / Catalogs

Most databases are organized along disciplinary or geographic lines, but there are a few that focus on a specific time period. Most of these relate to ancient and medieval studies.

Annee Philologique (L')
L'Annee Philologique is an index of publications related to the history, language, literature and civilization of ancient Greece and Rome. It includes periodical articles, articles in book collections, festschriften, dissertations, and conference papers.
Abbreviation: aphi
Vendor: Brepols Publishers
Coverage: 1924–Current
Subjects: Classics, History, Linguistics, Literature
Type: Indexes / Catalogs
Iter bibliography
Iter bibliography addresses many aspects of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, such as archaeology, art, history, literature, music, philosophy, religion, and science, covering the years 400–1700. It provides citations for books, journals, and essays.
Abbreviation: iter
Vendor: Iter, University of Toronto Libraries
Coverage: 1784–Current
Subjects: History, Literature, Religion, Women's and Gender Studies
Type: Indexes / Catalogs
Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index
Indexes journal articles, book reviews, and essays about women, sexuality and gender in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, from 450 C.E. to 1500 C.E. Updated frequently.
Abbreviation: mwgi
Vendor: University of Iowa Libraries
Coverage: 450 C.E. to 1500 C.E.
Subjects: History, Literature, Women's and Gender Studies
Type: Indexes / Catalogs, Open Access
Oxford Bibliographies
Developed cooperatively with scholars and librarians worldwide, Oxford Bibliographies offers exclusive, authoritative research guides. Oxford Bibliographies combines features of an annotated bibliography and a high-level encyclopedia, giving researchers scholarship across a wide variety of subjects.
Subjects:
African Studies
African American Studies
American Literature
Anthropology
Art History
Atlantic History
Biblical Studies
British and Irish Literature
Buddhism
Childhood Studies
Chinese Studies
Cinema and Media Studies
Classics
Communication
Criminology
Ecology
Education
Hinduism
International Law
International Relations
Islamic Studies
Jewish Studies
Latin American Studies
Linguistics
Literary and Critical Theory
Medieval Studies
Military History
Music
Philosophy
Political Science
Psychology
Public Health
Renaissance and Reformation
Social Work
Sociology
Victorian Literature

Abbreviation: oxbib
Vendor: Oxford University Press
Subjects: Religion, Urban and Regional Planning, *General / Multi-Subject, Bibliography
Type: Encyclopedias & Dictionaries, Research Starter

History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Contains records describing journal articles, conference proceedings, books, book reviews, and dissertations in the history of science, technology, medicine and allied historical fields. Citations reflect the contents of more than 1,000 journals, and partial contents of several hundred more.
Abbreviation: hist-scitech
Vendor: EBSCO
Subjects: *General Science, History
Type: E-Journal Collections, Indexes / Catalogs

The following online indexes also provide means to search the scholarship on the history of science. Both are open access initiatives, meaning they are free to use for students and scholars around the world. To locate discovered resources, copy and paste the title into the search box on the FSU Libraries homepage.

IsisCB Explore
A research tool for the history of science, whose core dataset comes from bibliographical citations in the Isis Bibliography of the History of Science. The IsisCB currently contains 40 years of citation data from 1974 to 2014.
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IsisCB is an open source project, currently available in beta but still under development. The scope of indexing is expected to expand to a wider date range, and to include additional sources of citations.
World History of Science Online
The WHSO project classifies and indexes online resources in the field of the History of Science and Technology of scholarly merit and provides brief descriptions of these resources.

Finding Peer Reviewed Journal Articles

You can also conduct a much broader search for journal articles from a variety of disciplines and subject areas. Use OneSearch to expand your search beyond the history-specific databases.