What are Periodicals?
A periodical is simply a publication that is issued "periodically" --which can mean once a week, once a month, four times a year, or even just "occasionally." Periodicals are often categorized as scholarly, popular, trade, or alternative. All types of periodicals may be useful to historians as primary sources. Scholarly periodicals, or journals, are also useful as secondary sources.
Learn more about periodicals and journals:
Article Indexes
Article indexes are searchable bibliographies of journal articles organized by subject.
Because the Library does not subscribe to every journal, and because not all journals are digitized, and because not all digitized journals are available in a single collection, the article indexes provide the only efficient means of identifying relevant articles from across the widest possible range of periodical publications.
Most of these article indexes include a mixture of academic and popular sources (and remember that sometimes the distinction is not clear).
There are two article indexes focused exclusively on history:
- America: History & Life with Full Text This link opens in a new window
Index of literature covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada, from prehistory to the present. The database indexes journals from 1964 to present and includes citations and links to book and media reviews.
- Historical Abstracts with Full Text This link opens in a new window
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. Provides indexing of more than 1,700 academic historical journals in over 40 languages back to 1955.
Other article indexes useful for research in this course, depending on the focus of your research topic, include the following:
- Bibliography of Asian Studies This link opens in a new window
This on-line version of the Bibliography of Asian Studies (BAS) contains 787,165 records on all subjects (especially in the humanities and the social sciences) pertaining to East, Southeast, and South Asia published worldwide from 1971 to the present... In addition to entries compiled since 1997, the online BAS includes the full data of all of the printed volumes of the BAS issued from the 1971 up to the 1991 volumes (published in 1997)... Through the 1991 printed volume, the BAS included citations to Western-language periodical articles, monographs, chapters in edited volumes, conference proceedings, anthologies, and Festschriften, etc. Monographs published since 1992, however, have not been added to the database, and users seeking such monographs are urged to consult other general resources and databases such as WorldCat.. Use Bibliography of Asian Studies in the NEW EBSCO user interface.
- CIAO (Columbia International Affairs Online) This link opens in a new windowColumbia International Affairs Online (CIAO) is the most comprehensive source for theory and research in international affairs. It publishes a wide range of scholarship from 1991 onward that includes working papers from university research institutes, occasional papers series from NGOs, foundation-funded research projects, proceedings from conferences, books, journals and policy briefs. CIAO is also widely-recognized source for teaching materials including original case studies written by leading international affairs experts, course packs of background readings for history and political science classes, and special features like the analysis of a bin Laden recruitment tape with video.
- Readers' Guide Retrospective This link opens in a new window
Provides indexing of general-interest periodicals published in the United States and reflects the history of 20th century America.
- SocINDEX with Full Text This link opens in a new window
SocINDEX with Full Text offers comprehensive coverage of sociology, encompassing all sub-disciplines and closely related areas of study. These include abortion, criminology & criminal justice, demography, ethnic & racial studies, gender studies, marriage & family, political sociology, religion, rural & urban sociology, social development, social psychology, social structure, social work, socio-cultural anthropology, sociological history, sociological research, sociological theory, substance abuse & other addictions, violence and many others.
- Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new windowAbstracts and indexes the international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. The database provides citations from 1952 to the present to journal articles, book reviews, books, book chapters, dissertations, and conference papers. Major areas of coverage include culture and social structure; demography and human biology; economic development; environmental interactions; evaluation research; family and social welfare; health and medicine and law; history and theory of sociology; management and complex organizations; mass phenomena and political interactions; methodology and research technology; policy, planning, forecast and speculation; radical sociology; religion and science; rural and urban sociology; social development; social differentiation; social psychology and group interaction; sociology of the arts, business, education; studies in violence and power; substance abuse and addiction; welfare services; women's studies.
- Worldwide Political Science Abstracts This link opens in a new windowProvides abstracts and indexing of the international literature of political science and international relations, along with complementary fields, including international law and public administration/policy. Provides abstracts of journal articles, books, book chapters, dissertations and working papers, and citations to book reviews drawn from over 1,500+ serials publications.
Full Text Journal (Scholarly) Collections
- JSTORThe full text of over 2,800 scholarly journals, with coverage back to the first issue for each, in some cases as far back as the 17th century. Recent issues of most journals in this database are embargoed by journal publishers, so to be certain you are also identifying the most recent publications, use an article index like Historical Abstracts or America: History, and Life.
- Project MUSEOver 600 scholarly journals, with emphasis on recent ten years of issues. Originally intended as a complement to JSTOR.
- Periodicals Archive Online
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1665-present. Over 700 European and American periodicals in the humanities and social sciences.
More Full Text Periodicals
- African American Periodicals, 1825-1995About 170 periodicals published by, for, or about African Americans. Part of the Archive of Americana.
- Bloomberg Businessweek Archive1929-2000.
- The Economist Historical Archive, 1843-2014Influential global news weekly, based in London. Part of Gale Primary Sources: Newspaper and Periodical Databases (formerly Gale NewsVault).
- Education Magazine Archive25 periodicals documenting education in the twentieth century, primarily United States and Australia, but also Europe, with emphasis on professional publications like American Teacher, and Black Collegian.
- Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive
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1880- . Major consumer and trade magazines, from their first issues through recent years. Includes: Variety; Picturegoer; Box Office; Back Stage; Stage; Billboard; Vox; Spin; Rolling Stone; Hollywood Reporter; and more. Emphasis is on Anglo-American publications. - The Forbes Historical Archive, 1917-2000Influential business magazine for executives, managers, investors, and others engaged in business or commerce.
- Life Magazine Digital ArchiveFull color reproductions of influential photojournalism magazine.
- The Nation Historical Archive1865-present. Facsimile edition of the influential, American liberal news weekly.
- News, Policy, and Politics Magazine Archive15 periodicals covering international relations and global policy in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including Newsweek, Church and State, and State Legislatures.
- Religious Magazine Archive23 periodicals from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, chiefly United States and Britain, including Catholic World and Islamic Horizons.
- Women's Magazine ArchiveExtensive runs of 18 major women's magazines, including Better Homes and Gardens (1886-2005); Cosmopolitan (1928-2005); Essence (1970-2005); Good Housekeeping (1885-2005); Ladies' Home Journal (1885-2005); Parents (1926-2005); Redbook (1903-2005); Seventeen (1944-2005); Town and Country (1846-2005); Woman's Day (1937-2005); Chatelaine (1928-2005); and WIN News (1975-2003). Coverage primarily twentieth century.