JSTOR is an excellent database for searching through journal articles. First, open JSTOR and click onto "Browse." This opens the journal listings and JSTOR allows you to "browse by discipline." This makes the search for JSTOR journals more readily navigable than on the "covers-all-things" databases. For those interested in history there are a number of areas that you might want to browse.
1. History. This is the largest holding, and one can find journals devoted to anything from medieval life to modern Italy. Most journal titles give you direction. French Historical Studies, African Historical Studies, and the Journal of Military Studies are all tip-offs as to what you can expect when you begin your browsing. Other journal titles are a bit more difficult to decipher, and you might have to look through a few articles in order to discern the journal's focus or area of concentration.
2. Classical Studies. This presents journals dealing with antiquity. The main area of concentration is ancient Greece and ancient Rome, but one can find articles dealing with other topics from antiquity.
3. Slavic Studies. This section provides first-rate materials on Russia and East Europe.
4. Use of the Search Engine to find Journals. I used JSTOR to find articles for an American history lecture. I was not crazy about the course textbook's interpretation of American farmers during the colonial era. I already knew something about those farmers that was not reflected in the text. My knowledge, though, was rather old. It came from John C. Miller's book written back in 1966. I decided to see if more recent scholarship confirmed or rejected Miller's older ideas.
I used JSTOR and typed "colonial farmers" and found three suitable articles, two of which I used. I was set for my lecture, but I also copied down the names of the journals (William and Mary Quarterly and Economic History Review) from which these articles were taken. There were other journals that were listed (Journal of the Early Republic and The Journal of American History), and I could hunt through these editions in the future, if I so desired, for further information on the American colonies.
5. Others. There are several headings similar to the Slavic Studies section. African-American Studies, Middle East Studies, Latin American Studies are examples and these headings give students a more clearly focused target. Incidentally, a student writing on the history of ancient Greek philosophy might find something in the Philosophy section. This is a guess on my part. I haven't attempted to track anything through the Philosophy journals.
JSTOR organizes the journals in each of these sections by the year. As I wrote before, you might want to confine yourself to articles published after 1990. If, on the other hand, you have reason to think something from earlier journals might be worthwhile, you should certainly take a look in the pre-1990 period.
Project Muse is another database that offers a more manageable list of history journals. Click onto "Journals" after opening the Project Muse site.
In the left menu change "Select a Category" to "Subject."
In the box below, a number of useful sub-categories appear ranging from "Irish Studies" to Asian Studies, Judaic Studies, Asian Studies, African Studies, Medieval Studies, Native American Studies, and so on. Of course, the broad general topic of "History" can also be found.
As a test I clicked onto "French Studies." From there I opened a third option window and discovered the following journals: French History, French Forum, French Historical Studies, and Nineteenth Century French History. I had the option of clicking onto any of these journals and then surveying through numerous articles.
Once again, those articles are presented by year, and I had to select the particular year I wanted to look through. Incidentally, Nineteenth Century French Studies presents an abstract and a full-text article. Not bad. (Go back to Part A or Journals opening.)
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