What are Periodicals?
Periodicals are publications like magazines, newspapers, and journals that are published "periodically" (for example, daily, or monthly, or quarterly).
This section of the guide primarily covers magazines and journals. The next section is devoted to newspapers.
Need a refresher? Learn more about periodicals:
Article Indexes/Databases
There are many article databases for finding periodical articles. These databases are often called article indexes, but they are essentially 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).
To identify journal articles in American history and history of medicine, try:
- America: History & Life with Full Text This link opens in a new window
Alternate version: America: History & Life with Full Text in the classic EBSCO user interface (best for exporting more than 50 results or combining saved searches). 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.
- History of Science, Technology & Medicine This link opens in a new window
Alternate version: History of Science, Technology & Medicine in the classic EBSCO user interface (best for exporting more than 50 results or combining saved searches). History of Science, Technology and Medicine reflects the influences these fields have had on society and culture throughout time, from prehistory to the present. Updated on a monthly basis, this essential database includes records of journal articles, conference proceedings, books, dissertations, serials, maps and other related materials.
For articles related to race and ethnicity:
- ProQuest Black Studies Center This link opens in a new windowThe ProQuest Black Studies Center includes the Black Studies Periodicals Database, which includes citations for articles in Black periodicals going back to 1902, as well as an online index to Black literature spanning from 1827-1940, the Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience (a database of studies, articles, images and essays covering important topics), and the full text of the Chicago Defender newspaper from 1910-1975.
- Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window
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Included are journals, magazines, and newspapers from ethnic and minority presses. The current collection, Ethnic NewsWatch™, covers 1990-present, and the historical collection, Ethnic NewsWatch: A History™, spans 1959-1989. Ethnicities include: African American/Caribbean/African; Arab/Middle Eastern; Asian/Pacific Islander; European/Eastern European; Hispanic; Jewish; Native People.
For medicine, nursing, public health, and sociology:
- CINAHL This link opens in a new window
Alternate version: CINAHL in the classic EBSCO user interface (best for exporting more than 50 results or combining saved searches). CINAHL provides indexing for close to 3000 journals from the fields of nursing and allied health. The database contains more than 1,000,000 records dating back to 1981. Offering complete coverage of English-language nursing journals and publications from the National League for Nursing and the American Nurses' Association, CINAHL covers nursing, biomedicine, health sciences librarianship, alternative/complementary medicine, consumer health and 17 allied health disciplines. In addition, this database offers access to health care books, nursing dissertations, selected conference proceedings, standards of practice, educational software, audiovisuals and book chapters. Searchable cited references for most of the indexed journals are also included. Full text material includes many journals plus legal cases, clinical innovations, critical paths, drug records, research instruments and clinical trials.
- MEDLINE - Ovid This link opens in a new windowCompiled by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), MEDLINE is the world's most comprehensive source of life sciences and biomedical bibliographic information. It contains nearly eleven million records from over 7,300 different publications from 1965 to present. Subjects covered include all aspects of clinical medicine (diseases and disorders, diagnostic and therapeutic techniques and equipment), basic biomedical sciences (anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, genetics, microbiology, pharmacology, etc.), the health care system (facilities, manpower, services, administration), dentistry, nursing, and clinical psychology. MEDLINE may be used to find information on diagnosis, etiology, therapy, and prevention of diseases and disorders; on research in basic science fields relating to medicine; and on biomedical technology and its applications.
- PubMed This link opens in a new windowProvides access to over 16 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals for biomedical articles back to the 1950s. Includes links to many sites providing full text articles and other related resources. Also includes the Index-Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon-General’s Office, which covers medical literature back to the 17th-century.
- SocINDEXIdentifies journal articles, books, and conference papers, on all aspects of sociology, including sociological history, ethnic and racial studies, gender studies, marriage and family studies, political sociology, religion, rural and urban sociology, social development, social structure, and social theory. Indexes publications from 1908-present.
- PAIS Index This link opens in a new windowThe PAIS Archive includes carefully selected resources to help users identify and locate information about significant political, economic, social and cultural issues affecting international and local communities, countries, governments and society. Its broad topical scope and retrospective coverage complement more specialized databases that cover the humanities, health care, agriculture, sociology, history, and many other disciplines, providing historical perspective on many of the 20th century's public and social policies. Also, the PAIS Archive database contains references to monographs, periodical articles, notes and announcements, and analytics, and the original historical subject headings have been retained within the file for enhanced searching capabilities.
- 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.
For multi-disciplinary and general readership periodicals:
- Academic Search Ultimate This link opens in a new window
Alternate version: Academic Search Ultimate in the classic EBSCO user interface (best for exporting more than 50 results or combining saved searches). A scholarly, multidisciplinary database providing indexing and abstracts for over 10,000 publications, including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, and others. Also includes full-text access to over 5,000 journals. Offers coverage of many areas of academic study including: archaeology, area studies, astronomy, biology, chemistry, civil engineering, electrical engineering, ethnic & multicultural studies, food science & technology, general science, geography, geology, law, mathematics, mechanical engineering, music, physics, psychology, religion & theology, women's studies, and other fields.
- Readers' Guide RetrospectiveThe backfile for Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature, one of the oldest and most common article indexes. Identifies articles from general interest periodicals, including popular magazines such as "Life", "Look", "Colliers", "Ladies’ Home Journal", "Catholic World", "Good Housekeeping", "Saturday Evening Post", and "Country Life". Emphasis on American periodicals. Indexes publications from 1890-1982.
Digitized Journal Collections
- JSTOR This link opens in a new window
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Provides page images of back issues of the core scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and basic sciences from the earliest issues to within a few years of current publication. Users may browse by journal title or discipline, or may search the full-text or citations/abstracts. New issues of existing titles and new titles are added approximately on a weekly basis. The University of Illinois has access to the following JSTOR collections: Arts & Sciences I-XV, 19th Century British Pamphlets, Business IV, Global Plants, Hebrew Journals, Ireland, Life Sciences Collection, Lives of Literature, Security Studies, Struggles for Freedom - South Africa, Sustainability, and World Heritage Sites - Africa. - Periodicals Archive Online This link opens in a new window
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Periodicals Archive Online is a major archive that makes the backfiles of scholarly periodicals in the arts, humanities and social sciences available electronically, providing access to the searchable full text of hundreds of titles. The database spans more than two centuries of content, 37 key subject areas, and multiple languages. - Project Muse This link opens in a new windowFull-text articles from more than 200 scholarly journals in history and the humanities, the social sciences, and the sciences. Disciplines covered include literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, economics, and many others. A brief bibliographic description of each title is given. Searches can be conducted across the full text of all journals in the database.
- ScienceDirect This link opens in a new windowScienceDirect is a combination of an article database and a digitized journal collection. It's especially useful for history of medicine because it includes full runs of important journals such as The Lancet (1823-present)
Digitized Periodical Collections
- American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection This link opens in a new windowA digitized collection of periodicals from North America, from early imported publications to titles published in the North American colonies and later in the United States (1691-1877).
- American Periodicals
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1740-1940. Over 1,000 titles. Probably the single most important digital collection of early American periodicals. Includes the sub-collection American Periodicals from the Center for Research Libraries, which is particularly strong in trade and labor periodicals. - African American Periodicals, 1825-1995About 170 periodicals published by, for, or about African Americans. Part of the Archive of Americana.
- Independent Voices1951-2015. Over 1,000 alternative press newspapers and periodicals. Currently includes nine subcollections: African American; student protest; feminist; military; LGBTQ; Latino/Latina; literary; American Indian; and radical Right. Click here to view a complete title list for Independent Voices.
Alternative Press
Serial publications of the non-mainstream media, often referred to as "alternative" or "underground" press publications, can be difficult to locate. Publications in this category include newspapers, magazines, newsletters, and other types of serial publications. These periodicals tend to be written from an acknowledged political perspective--for example, liberal or conservative--and they often promote a specific agenda. They might, however, report on news that is of interest to a specific community--often a marginalized one--without endorsing any defined ideology. Examples of these might be African American newspapers, gay and lesbian magazines, military newspapers, or publications of immigrant groups. The guide covers primarily alternative press publications of the United States, with some coverage of Canada and the United Kingdom.
The African American periodical press is covered in a separate guide:
Online Sources
- Alt-Press Watch1970-present; mostly United States. Over 670,000 articles from 200 alternative press titles, predominantly news weeklies.
- Alternative Press Index and Alternative Press Index ArchiveIdentifies articles from alternative newspapers, magazines and journals. Indexes publications from 1969-present. Alternative Press Index file actually only covers 1991-present. To add 1969-1990, you must click "Choose Databases" above search box, and select Alternative Press Index Archive as well.
- Chicago Foreign Language Press SurveyThe Chicago Foreign Language Press Survey was published in 1942 by the Chicago Public Library Omnibus Project of the Work Projects Administration of Illinois. Its purpose was to translate into English and classify selected news articles appearing in the Chicago area foreign language press from 1861 to 1938. The project consists of a file of 120,000 typewritten pages translated from newspapers of 22 different foreign language communities in Chicago.
- Chris Gonzalez GLBT Archive CollectionPeriodicals, ca. 1966-1990, from the Indianapolis LGBT community. Source institution: Indiana University Library.
- Ethnic News Watch
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1959-present. Newspaper, magazine, and journal articles from ethnic, minority and native presses. - Gender WatchNewspapers and periodicals with an emphasis on women and gender issues. Indexes publications from 1970-present.
- Hispanic American Newspapers, 1808-1980Mostly scattered issues of over 300 Hispanic-American newspapers. Purports to be largest compilation of Spanish-language newspapers printed in the U.S. during the nineteenth and twentith centuries. Based on the "Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project" collection at the the University of Houston. Click here to view a complete title list for Hispanic American Newspapers. Part of America's Historical Newspapers and the Archive of Americana.
- Independent Voices1951-2015. Over 1,000 alternative press newspapers and periodicals. Currently includes nine subcollections: African American; student protest; feminist; military; LGBTQ; Latino/Latina; literary; American Indian; and radical Right. Click here to view a complete title list for Independent Voices.
- Left IndexIdentifies articles written from a leftist political, economic, social or cultural perspective. Includes some retrospective coverage of historically significant left wing publications like the People (New York, N.Y. : 1891). Indexes publications from 1982-present.
- Politics, Social Activism and Community Support: Selected Gay and Lesbian Periodicals and NewslettersTRIAL. Over 200 periodicals and newsletters, published between 1947 and 2004, from the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered (GLBT) Historical Society, San Francisco. Part of Archives Unbound.
- ProQuest Historical Black Newspapers
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The major black newspapers of the twentieth century. Click here to see a complete list. Part of ProQuest Historical Newspapers. - ProQuest Historical Communist NewspapersNine labor, socialist, and communist newspapers published in the United States. All nine newspapers are connected to the Daily Worker. Part of ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
- Rock and Roll, Counterculture, Peace and Protest: Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975Emphasis on protest and social change. Archival material from the Browne Popular Culture Library (Bowling Green State University), the Bancroft Library (University of California, Berkeley), the British National Archives, the University of Sussex Library, and the Rock Source Archive.
- The Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives, 1960-1974Diaries, letters, autobiographies, memoirs, written and oral histories, manifestos, government documents, memorabilia, alternative press periodicals, and scholarly commentary.
Microfilm Sources
The University Library has hundreds of alternative newspapers on microfilm, with coverage back to 1960 and earlier. The best way to check for availability of specific titles, or to browse by date and place of publication, is to consult the Library's Newspaper Database. Listed below are specific collections of interest.
- Underground Press CollectionCall Number: FILM 071.3 Un2Most titles from the United States and Canada. With printed guide. Coverage: 1963-1985. Supplemented and continued by the Hoover Institution Supplement to Underground Press Collection, the University of Missouri Underground Newspaper Collection, the Alternative Press Collection, and the Underground Press Collection Alternative Press Center Supplement, for all of which see below. Click here to view a complete title list for the Underground Press Collection.
- University of Missouri Library Underground Newspaper CollectionCall Number: FILM 071.3 Un1mMost titles from the United States and Canada. Adds 120 titles to those in the Underground Press Collection (see above). Coverage: 1960s-1970s. With printed guide. Click here to view a complete title list for the University of Missouri Library Underground Newspaper Collection.
- Alternative Press CollectionCall Number: FILM 071.3 AL82ISBN: 1059-9908Publication Date: 1989-2003Coverage: 1986-2003, with some outliers (e.g. titles from the 40s, 50s, and 60s). Titles from around the world. Continues the Underground Press Collection (see above). Was an annually updated microfilm collection of alternative newspapers and journals from the 1980s and 1990s. This collection has an annotated list that includes all titles in units 1 through 19, arranged in alphabetical order and by subject. Click here to view a full list of titles in the Alternative Press Collection.
- Underground Press Collection. Alternative Press Center SupplementCall Number: FILM 071.3 Un23Further supplements the Underground Newspaper Collection (see above). Library has the complete collection (units 1-8) . Each unit has its own printed guide. Click here to view a complete list of periodicals in the Alternative Press Center Supplement.
- Hoover Institution Supplement to Underground Press CollectionCall Number: FILM 071.3 Un24Supplements the Underground Press Collection (see above): adds missing issues from 88 titles in the original collection, and an additional 178 titles from the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace. With printed guide. Click here to view a complete list of titles in the Hoover Institution Supplement to Underground Press Collection.
- San Francisco / Bay Area Gay and Lesbian Serial Collection byCall Number: FILM 306.76605 SA5261 titles on 96 microfilm reels. Coverage: 1953-1989. Click here to view a full list of titles in the San Francisco / Bay Area Gay and Lesbian Serial Collection.
- Selected Periodicals and Newsletters from the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Historical Society
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Call Number: ILL106 microfilm reels. Use guide to identify titles. - Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance Archives, 1972-1994: Part IV: Periodicals byCall Number: FILM 306.76609758 At62LGBTQ and feminist newsletters, newspapers, and magazines. Not all titles from the source microfilm set are in the digitized version Periodicals primarily from the 1970s and 1980s. Many of these periodicals have been digitized and are available in the Archives of Sexuality and Gender in Archives Unbound. Click here to view a complete list of periodicals in the microfilm collection.
- Herstory : Microfilm Edition of the International Women's History Periodical Archive byCall Number: FILM 396 H439Covers mostly the 1960s and 1970s. Journals, newspapers, and newsletters of women's liberation organizations, as well as women's civic, religious, professional, and peace organizations. The collection was issued in five successive parts. Consult the completed guide to understand the complicated arrangement.
- The Right Wing Collection of the University of Iowa LibrariesCall Number: FILM 320.52 R44Collection of periodicals and ephemera. Coverage: 1918-1977.
- Military Newspapers: Dougherty CollectionCall Number: FILM 071.3 M599Coverage: Mexican War-Vietnam War. Titles from all branches of the U.S. military. Emphasis on World War II. Almost 2,500 titles. With printed guide.
Reference Sources
- The American Radical Press, 1880-1960 byCall Number: 016.3350973 AM35ISBN: 9780837166254Publication Date: 19742 vols. Lists the major radical journals, grouped together by common ideology (communism, socialism, anarchism, and so forth), and includes substantive critical essays on each.
- Anarchist Periodicals in English Published in the United States, 1833-1955: An Annotated Guide byCall Number: 016.3358305 L855aISBN: 0810872544Publication Date: 2010
- American Labor Union Periodicals: A Guide to their Location byCall Number: 016.33187 N11APublication Date: 1956
- African-American Newspapers and Periodicals: A National Bibliography byCall Number: Q. 015.73035 Af83ISBN: 0674007883Publication Date: 1998Arranged alphabetically by title, with a geographic index, as well as an index of editors and a subject index. Known locations are indicated.
- American Indian and Alaska Native Newspapers and Periodicals byCall Number: 051 L73AISBN: 0313234256Publication Date: 1984-1986Vol. 1: 1826-1924, vol. 2: 1925-1970, vol. 3: 1971-1985. Covers periodicals and newspapers edited by published by American Indians or Alaska Natives and others whose purpose was to publish about contemporary American Indians or Alaska Natives. For each title, there is a narrative history, a full bibliographic description, detailed publication history, citations to other sources of information, and a list of location sources. There is a chronological list of titles, and indexes by tribal affiliation and place of publication, and a list of contributors to the project with brief biographies.
- Native American Periodicals and Newspapers, 1828-1982: Bibliography, Publishing Record, and Holdings byCall Number: 016.9730497 N213ISBN: 0313237735Publication Date: 1984Complete bibliographic descriptions for 1,164 periodicals and newspapers by and about Native Americans, published between 1828 and 1982, arranged alphabetically by title Includes holdings for selected repositories, subject index, geographic name index, and index of publishers.
- Hispanic Periodicals in the United States, Origins to 1960: A Brief History and Comprehensive Bibliography byCall Number: 015.73034 K131hPublication Date: 2000
- International Directory of Gay and Lesbian Periodicals byCall Number: 016.30676605 M295IISBN: 0897742974Publication Date: 1987
- Our Own Voices: A Directory of Lesbian and Gay Periodicals, 1890-1990: Including the Complete Holdings of the Canadian Gay Archives byCall Number: 016.30676605 M612OISBN: 0969098162Publication Date: 1991Not just Canadian periodicals, and a very large number of periodicals published in the United States.
- The Directory of Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Community Publications in the United States and Canada byCall Number: 016.30670625 So69d 1993Publication Date: 19932nd ed.
- The Lesbian Periodicals Index byCall Number: 016.3067663 P851LPublication Date: 1986Subject index to articles in 42 lesbian periodicals, ca. 1947-1985.
- From Radical Left to Extreme Right: A Bibliography of Current Periodicals of Protest, Controversy, Advocacy, or Dissent, with Dispassionate Content-Summaries to Guide Librarians and other Educators byCall Number: Q. 016.323 M91F 1987Publication Date: 1987
- Directory of the American Left byCall Number: 320.53025 D628Publication Date: 1965-1989Continues: Guide to the American Left.
Continued by: Guide to the American Left. - The Left Guide: A Guide to Left-of-Center OrganizationsCall Number: Q. 320.51 L522Publication Date: 1996-Includes a periodicals listing.
- Underground Press Syndicate Directory byCall Number: 016.071 Un22Publication Date: 1968-1970Thin volume. Annotations do not indicate editorial character of the publications listed, but these would mostly be Left and far left periodicals.
- U.P.S. Directory byCall Number: 016.071 AL7uPublication Date: 1973Continues: Underground Press Syndicate Directory.
Continued by: APS Directory. - Directory of the American Right byCall Number: Q. 322.43025 D62Publication Date: 1969-1991Continues: Guide to the American Right..
Continued by: Guide to the American Right.. - The Right Guide: A Guide to Conservative and Right-of-Center Organizations byCall Number: Q. 320.5202573 R4491997Publication Date: 1997-Includes a periodicals listing.
- Censored: Hard-to-Locate Sources of Information on Current Affairs byCall Number: 011.7 C81SISBN: 0933152027Publication Date: 1971-1982Right and far right news sources. Not all editions are available at University of Illinois.
How to Find a Periodical Article
If you have a citation for a periodical article, and you want to locate that article, the essential pieces of information you need to locate that article are the name of the journal (or magazine), and the publication date.
Let's look at the following citation as an example:
Houston, R.A. “Poor Relief and the Dangerous and Criminal Insane in Scotland, c.1740-1840.” Journal of Social History 40 no. 2 (2006): 453-476.
The key pieces of information are the name of the journal, Journal of Social History, and the date, 2006. You will use catalogs to determine whether or not the Library owns that journal. To reiterate: the title of the journal, not the title of the article, is the key piece of information when trying to locate that article in the Library.
Since most of our journals are now available online, the first catalog you will use is called:
- University of Illinois Library Catalog: Journal SearchA catalog of the Library's journal collection, with emphasis on online journals and periodicals. Most useful as a catalog of e-journals, but you can also use it to locate print copies.
If you do not find the journal in the catalog of Online Journals and Databases, you will next search for a print copy in the traditional Library catalog:
- University of Illinois Library CatalogUse the Library Catalog to identify books, journals (but not journal articles), microform collections, and digital collections owned by the University of Illinois. The Library Catalog is the primary tool for exploring the collections of the University of Illinois Library, the second largest academic library collection in the United States. In the Library Catalog you can search for books by subject, and you identify the location within the Library of a particular book or journal. Books and journals are organized in the library by subject. Each item is assigned one or more subject headings and a unique call number. Subject headings are standardized terms from the Library of Congress. The call number is based on the Dewey Decimal Classification or Library of Congress Classification. Boolean operators must be capitalized if used: AND, OR, NOT. Interface automatically truncates some search terms unless Boolean operators are used within the same query line. You can also browse catalog records by call number, creating a "virtual shelf browsing" experience.
If the Library has neither an online nor a print copy of the journal, then you will request the article through Interlibrary Loan:
- ILLiad (Interlibrary Loan)If the item is not available in the Illinois catalog and it is not available through I-Share, then your next stop will be Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery. Login to Interlibrary Loan using your NetID and password. If you are requesting a book, then select "Request a Book". If you are requesting a journal article, then select "Request a Photocopy". Be sure to fill out as much of the form as possible. You'll be notified by email when your item is ready to be picked up. If you requested a journal article, it will probably be sent to you electronically as a PDF.
Notes
1. D.E. Davinson, The Periodicals Collection: Its Purpose and Uses in Libraries (London: Andre Deutsch, 1969), 38.