General Tips

1. Use appropriate print and/or electronic indexes to determine the exact location (e.g., periodical title, volume number, pages) of articles about your topic.
2. If possible, use multiple indexes. No single index can cover every journal which might include articles about your topic.
3. Subject headings often vary significantly from database to database. For instance, these headings are called "Descriptors" in the America: History & Life database. The researcher who uses the same search term in a periodicals database that she had used in a library catalog often achieves poor results. For instance, "blacks" would be an appropriate "descriptor" term in the periodicals database America: History and Life, whereas "afro-americans" is the appropriate Library of Congress subject heading.
4. Use cumulative indexes to specific history journals. Such indexes often provide much more detailed coverage of journal content than do databases such as America: History and Life. See the web page for the journal California History for an excellent example of a journal index. Indexes to specific journals are noted throughout American Women's History: A Research Guide.
5. The researcher can often find additional and unexpected references in "citation indexes."
6. Ask a reference librarian at your library if you need further assistance.

Journal Indexes, Databases, and Related Tools

Most bibliographies include references to journal articles, as well as books, government documents, and other materials. See the Bibliographies section of this guide for references to general bibliographies. In addition, most of the sections within the Subject Index to Research Sources include references to appropriate bibliographies.

America: History and Life: A Guide to Periodical Literature. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-Clio, 1964- . Quarterly.
Available in print and CD-ROM formats.

Feminist Periodicals: A Current Listing of Contents. Madison, Wisc.: Women's Studies Librarian, 1981- . Quarterly.
Reprints the table of contents pages of over 100 magazines and journals, many of which are not covered in standard indexes.

ingenta [http://www.ingenta.com/]

JSTOR [database]. New York: JSTOR, 1995- .
Offers image and full text access to back issues of scholarly journals in a variety of academic fields. Overview from the publisher.

Periodicals Contents Index [database]. [Alexandria, Va.]: Chadwyck-Healey, 1996- . Author, title and keyword access to older issues (through 1990) of 3000 journals in the humanities and social sciences.
Chadwyck-Healey offers an overview of PCI and PCI Full Text.

ViVa: A Current Bibliography of Women's History in Historical and Women's Studies Journals [online]. International Institute of Social History, 1994- . Annual. Available from http://www.iisg.nl/~womhist/index.html.

Women Studies Abstracts. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Periodicals Consortium, Rutgers University, 1972- . Quarterly.

Women's Studies Index. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1989- . Annual.

Women's Resources International [database]. St. Paul, Minn.: National Information Services Corporation, 1997- .
Reviewed for H-Women by Catherine Clinton: http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/exhibit/showrev.cgi?path=23

Citation Indexes: A Unique Tool

The Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) produces the two citation databases listed below. Citation indexes are particularly useful because they show which journal articles have cited specific works or authors. For example, a researcher tracing the historiography of studies of plantation mistresses could search for citations to Clinton's The Plantation Mistress and to Fox-Genovese's Within the Plantation Household. Ask a reference librarian at your local library whether you have access to an electronic version of this index. The printed index has very small print and is quite time consuming to use. ISI's home page offers Additional Information".

Arts & Humanities Citation Index. Philadelphia: Institute for Scientific Information, 1977- .

Social Sciences Citation Index. Philadelphia: Institute for Scientific Information, 1973- .

Specific Journal Titles

The following journals consistently include articles about American women's history. See Stefan Blaschke's The History Journals Guide or Tennessee Tech's Historical Journals On-line for additional links.

Journal of Women's History. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989- .
Online information from the publisher: http://iupjournals.org/jwh/.
This journal is valuable for its high quality articles, book reviews and bibliographies.

NWSA Journal. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Online information from the publisher: http://iupjournals/nwsa/.

Other Journal Information Sources

Katz, Bill, and Linda Sternberg Katz, eds. Magazines for Libraries. 8th ed. New York: Bowker, 1995.

PubList [online]. Rockland, Mass.: PubList.com, 1998. Available from: http://www.publist.com/.
This periodicals directory uses data from such sources as Ulrich's International Periodicals Directory (see below). Users can search by keyword, or browse by publisher, title, or subject.

Steiner, Dale R., and Casey R. Phillips. Historical Journals: A Handbook for Writers and Reviewers. 2d ed. Jefferson, N.C., and London: McFarland, 1993.
This handbook provides basic, factual information about 700 historical journals.

Ulrich's International Periodicals Directory. New York: Bowker, 1932- . Biennial.