Article Indexes
Article indexes are a type of bibliography. The purpose of bibliography is to list documents, usually published documents like books and articles. This type of bibliography is more accurately called "enumerative bibliography". An enumerative bibliography will attempt to be as comprehensive as possible, within whatever parameters established by the bibliographer.
Think of a bibliography as a guide to the source base for a specific field of inquiry. A high quality bibliography will help you understand what kinds of sources are available, but also what kinds of sources are not available (either because they were never preserved, or because they were never created in the first place).
For more information on the role of bibliography in historical research, see our guide to Bibliography and Historical Research.
Bibliographies can be as short as a few pages, or as long as several hundred volumes. Bibliographies can also be published as databases, and these are the bibliographies that are often called "article indexes" or "indexing and abstracting services" because they index the contents of journals:
- Historical AbstractsJournal articles, book reviews, and dissertations on all aspects of world history, excluding North America, from 1450. Includes links to the full text of some articles. Complements America: History and Life. Indexes publications from 1954-present.
- International African Bibliography = Bibliographie internationale africaineQuarterly bibliography, began as a section in the journal Africa. Became a separate publication in 1971. For pre-2001 issues, consult the print edition. Indexes publications from 1929-present.
- Africa BibliographyAnnual bibliography of African Studies. Identifies books, essays, and articles in the social sciences, environmental sciences, humanities, and fine arts. Began as a catalog of publications received by the Edinburgh University Library and the International African Institute. Not useful for identifying government documents. Indexes publications from 1984-present.
- African Studies Centre DatabaseMulti-disciplinary. The catalog of the African Studies Centre in Leiden, which lists over 80,000 books, over 85,000 journal articles, as well as African newspapers, government reports, grey literature, and motion pictures. Includes annotated citations to journal articles and listing of books chapters from works acquired since 1988.
- Bibliography of Africana Periodical LiteratureSix databases: Africana Periodical Literature, African Women, Search Women Travelers to Africa, Islam in Africa, Kenya Coast, and Water in Africa. Files can be searched separately, or together through AfricaBib.
- African Women's Bibliographic DatabaseIdentifies books, book chapters, government documents, periodical and journal articles, dissertations and theses, and conference papers. Indexes publications from 1986-present.
- International Index to Black Periodicals (1900-present) and Marshall Index (1940-1946)Identifies articles on all aspects of Black studies, in journals from North America, Africa, and the Caribbean. Part of the Black Studies Center. Includes the Marshall Index, which covers 1940-1946. Indexes publications from 1902-present. In the current version of Black Studies Center, the International Index to Black periodicals and the Marshall Index have been combined into a single browsable file called "Black Literature Index," and are no longer separately searchable.
- International Political Science AbstractsSubscription canceled. Identifies articles from political science periodicals published around the world. Indexes publications from 1989-present. For retrospective coverage, 1951-1988, consult the print volumes.
- Worldwide Political Science AbstractsIdentifies articles from political science periodicals published around the world. Indexes publications from 1975-present.
Because article indexes are a form of bibliography, and not a catalog, you can use them to discover articles from journals the Library doesn't even own. An article index, therefore, enables you to cast the widest possible net within whatever field the article index covers. If you discover an article from a journal that the Library does not own, you can request a copy of 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.
Digitized Journal Collections
There are several major collections of full-text electronic journals. In these databases you can browse individual issues of journals, or you can do a search across the entire database. Most of the journals in the following collections are scholarly journals:
- 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. - Sabinet (African Journals)The Library does not subscribe to every journal in this collection. You can limit your search to subscribed titles only, but remember that if you find an article in a journal that the Library does not own, then you can request a copy through interlibrary loan.
