Library Research Guides: AMERICAN STUDIES: Find Articles

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Subject Guide

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Contact:

781-283-3372
kstorz@wellesley.edu

Research & Instruction Librarian
Office: Clapp Library 218B

Subjects: Africana Studies, American Studies, Cinema & Media Studies, Cognitive & Linguistic Sciences, Comparative Literature, East Asian Languages & Cultures, East Asian Studies, English, German & German Cultural Studies, Italian Studies, Latin American Studies, Portuguese, Russian & Russian Area Studies, Spanish

Selected Databases

These databases contain a mix of citations and full text journal articles and books, with an emphasis on scholarly sources. They represent some of the disciplines relevant to American Studies. Depending on the focus of your research, you may want to consult other databases listed on our full Databases list. Use the Subject filter there to browse the databases by discipline.

America: History & Life with Full Text This link opens in a new window
U.S. and Canadian history and culture articles, prehistory to present, written from 1955 to present.
Communication & Mass Media Complete This link opens in a new window
Journal articles in the fields of communications, mass media, journalism, television, radio, newspaper publishing, speech, broadcasting, communication theory, and advertising, with full text for over 500 journals.
Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window
An interdisciplinary, bilingual (English and Spanish), full text database of newspapers, magazines, and journals from ethnic, minority and native presses, 1960 to present.
GenderWatch This link opens in a new window
With a focus on how gender impacts a broad spectrum of subject areas, this collection gathers historical perspectives on the evolution of the women's movement, men's studies, the transgender community, and changes in gender roles, including articles dating back as far as the 1970s.
LGBTQ+ Source This link opens in a new window
Index to the world's literature on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues
Literature Online (LION) This link opens in a new window
Literary texts from 1600 to the present, literary criticism full-text 1998 to present
Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window
Biographies, bibliographies and full-text critical analysis of authors from all genres and eras
Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Indexes international scholarly literature in sociology, 1952 to present.
Women's Studies International This link opens in a new window
Indexes journal articles and books on women's studies, feminism, and gender studies, 1972 to present

Multidisciplinary Databases

These databases contain citations & full text for scholarly articles in a variety of fields.

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
The world's largest scholarly, multi-disciplinary full text database. Dates of coverage vary by title and go back as far as 1887.
MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
Index to publications on literature, linguistics, film, and folklore, from all cultures, 1963 to present. International in scope, it includes citations to journal articles, books, articles in books, series, translations, scholarly editions, websites, and dissertations.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Collection of key scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences & natural sciences, starting from the first issue but typically not the most recent 3-5 years.
Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Academic journals and books in the humanities and social sciences.
Arts & Humanities Citation Index This link opens in a new window
Index to scholarly articles in the arts and humanities, 1975 to present. Search for articles that cite known journal articles or books

Peer Review

Many databases allow you to limit your search to peer-reviewed articles. Learn about peer review in this short video (from the University of Kansas Libraries).

How can you tell if a journal is peer-reviewed?

Many databases will indicate whether a journal or journal article is peer-reviewed. You can also go to the journal's web site and look for a link that says information for authors, instructions for authors, submitting an article, or something similar. If the journal is peer-reviewed, there will be information about the peer-review process.

Another place to find out if a journal is peer-reviewed is to search for the journal title in Ulrichsweb. This directory gives you useful information about a specific journal, including whether it is peer-reviewed. (You need to be logged in with your Wellesley credentials to access Ulrichsweb.)