What are scholarly journals?
Scholarly journals, sometimes called academic or professional journals, are specialized periodicals that publish articles for study and research. They are written for the academic audience--scholars, professors, and students --in a particular subject area. Many of them are published by universities or scholarly organizations. You won't find these periodicals on the magazine display in stores!
Scholarly journals are periodicals (like magazines and newspapers) because they have new issues appearing at regular intervals, but usually only 3 or 4 times a year. That's why you often see words like "winter 2013" in a listing of journal articles.
Many scholarly journals have a system of peer review. This means that before articles are published, they must first be reviewed by a group of scholars who make sure that the article meets high standards for study and research in the subject area.
Not all scholarly journals have the actual word journal in their title. So how do you know which ones are actual scholarly journals? Use this quick guide called "Magazines vs.Scholarly Journals".
Recommended Art Databases
- Art & Architecture CompleteArt & Architecture Complete is the definitive research database for the study of art and architecture. This database provides full-text coverage of 380 periodicals and more than 220 books. In addition, this database offers cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts for more than 780 academic journals, magazines and trade publications, as well as for over 230 books.
- JSTOROffers access to academic journals, books, and primary sources across many disciplines. While not strictly art-focused, JSTOR's holdings include many resources in the field of art & art history.
General Humanities Databases
- Academic Search Ultimate This link opens in a new windowAcademic Search Ultimate offers access to an unprecedented collection of resources including journals, magazines, reports, books, and videos. Many are peer-reviewed and full-text. Subjects range from astronomy to zoology.
- Humanities International Complete This link opens in a new windowA comprehensive database of humanities content, providing full text of hundreds of journals, books & other published sources from arount the world. This database includes data from American Humanities Index & Humanities International Index.
- MasterFILE Premier This link opens in a new windowProvides abstracts and indexing for 2,650 general periodicals. Full text of articles for nearly 2,000 periodicals, and 5,000 full text Magill Book Reviews.
- ProQuest Newspapers This link opens in a new windowSearch the full text of these newspapers: The Baltimore Sun, Christian Science Monitor, New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal.
Getting Full Text
Some databases will have the full text of the entire article available within the database, others will only have a citation for the article. When there is only a citation available, you will see a yellow find it button
. This button will give you options for getting a full text version of the article. If we have access to it in another database it will be linked there.
If it says "Not Available Online" then look for "Check Availability in SU Catalog"; if you see that then we may have a hardcopy version on the shelf in the library.
If you don't have either of those options then you can request it through Interlibrary Loan (ILL)! There are loads of ways to get a copy of an article you are interested in.