Many students already use JSTOR (see below), and while JSTOR is an excellent database, restricting your search to it means you are likely to miss lots of potentially relevant articles, not to mention dissertations: while America: History and Life covers 1,700 journals in American history, JSTOR only includes about 150, and does not include any dissertations.
As with America: History and Life (see above), ATLA Religion Database makes a better starting point for serious research than JSTOR, since it covers 1,746 journals, while JSTOR includes only about 60 religious studies journals.
There are many other specialized or multidisciplinary article databases that you could search, depending on the focus of your topic. These databases will give you access to popular magazines, scholarly journals, or both. Coverage can be recent or deeply retrospective (some databases cover as far back as the 17th century). Below is a list of databases you might find useful for this course.
This link opens in a new window This link opens in a new windowSeveral key historical and religious studies journals are included in JSTOR, such as
Here you will find, for example,
This link opens in a new windowThe Library also owns a large collection of periodicals of religious organizations. You can find these titles in the online catalog. Try simple keyword searches like: methodist AND periodicals. Alternatively, you can browse for subject headings:
You can also identify religious periodicals by using classified lists like Periodicals Directory (began publication in 1932, subsequently known as Ulrich's), and Ayer's Directory of Publications (goes back to 1880).
Finally, you might consider browsing in the Main Stacks, beginning at call number 205.
