Use journal articles when you need original research on a specific topic from a reliable source.

Many academic journals are “peer-reviewed” which means they have been checked by academic experts to make sure they are reliable. Scholarly journals take less time to publish than books, so they’re often a good way to identify the latest thinking on a topic.

Journal databases with a history topic focus

More generalist databases with good coverage of history topics

These include:

  • JSTOR provides access to journals, book and primary sources including archives of many small publishers and independent journals. Please note that JSTOR often holds only older journal issues and that newer materials will be available through other databases.
  • Web of Science includes 200 core history titles
  • Zetoc gives access to over 36,000 journals and more than 59 million article citations
  • Journal Archives includes titles especially relevant for History of Science, but also has good general coverage
  • Periodicals Archive Online contains over 700 humanities journals comprising more than 3 million articles and 15 million article pages.