O'Malley Library: History: Finding Secondary Sources

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Journal List

Scholarly Articles

Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Academic equivalent of Google search, with links to the full text of journals held by our library. Includes some content not available through the standard version of Google.
HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
HeinOnline bridges the gap in historical research by providing comprehensive coverage from inception of more than 2,300 law-related periodicals. In addition to its vast collection of law journals, HeinOnline contains the entire Congressional Record, Federal Register, and Code of Federal Regulations, complete coverage of the U.S. Reports back to 1754, and entire databases dedicated to treaties, constitutions, case law, world trials, classic treatises, international trade, foreign relations, U.S. Presidents, and much more.
Humanities International Complete This link opens in a new window
Includes all data from Humanities International Index (more than 2,300 journals and more than 2.9 million records) plus unique full text content, much of which is not found in other databases. The database includes full text for more than 1,200 journals.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
JSTOR stands for Journal Storage and is an electronic archive of leading journals across many academic disciplines. Subscribed collections include Arts & Sciences I - VIII, Ireland, and Life Sciences. There are embargos of between 3-5 years for most journal titles.
Project MUSE - Basic College Collection This link opens in a new window
A leading provider of digital humanities and social science content for the scholarly community. MUSE is the trusted source of complete, full-text versions of scholarly journals from many of the world's leading university presses and scholarly societies, with over 120 publishers currently participating.
ProQuest Central This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive database with thousands of periodical titles and millions of full-text articles covering many subjects, including: business and economics, health and medical, news and world affairs, science, education, technology, humanities, social sciences, psychology, literature, law, women's studies and other fields.
Scopus This link opens in a new window
Scopus is the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature: scientific journals, books and conference proceedings. Delivering a comprehensive overview of the world's research output in the fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and arts and humanities, Scopus features smart tools to track, analyze and visualize research.

How to Read Academic Articles

Reading scholarly articles is challenging. Follow these tips as you peruse your articles.

Start by examining the structure and format of the article. Most scholarly, peer-reviewed articles have the same or similar structure. Many contain data and findings.

Abstract (summary of the whole article
Introduction (why they did the research)
Methodology (how they did the research)
Results (what happened; identify the findings)
Discussion (what the results mean)
Conclusion (what they learned)
References (whose research they read)

Read the abstract and conclusion first, as these have the main points.
Read the discussion next. This will give you a longer report on the findings and their implications.
At this point, if you're sure the article has what you need, start at the beginning and read the whole thing through, taking notes as you go.

Taking Notes on Scholarly Articles

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Scholarly Articles

How to Read Academic Articles