Recommended Journals
These journals are recommended by Dr. Colven. Most journal homepages will have a search box, allowing you to search the journal's contents.
Area Studies
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American Bibliography of Slavic and East European Studies (ABEES)Multi-disciplinary coverage of East-Central Europe and the former Soviet Union. References to journal articles, books, book chapters, book reviews, dissertations, online resources, and selected government publications published in the United States and Canada.
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Bibliography of Asian Studies (BAS)Multidisciplinary coverage of East, Southeast, and South Asia. References to western-language journal articles, books (to 1991), book chapters, conference proceedings.
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ClasePeriodicaMultidisciplinary coverage of Latin America. References to journal articles, books, book reviews, essays, conference proceedings, and technical reports in Spanish, Portuguese, French, and English.
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Handbook of Latin American StudiesMultidisciplinary coverage of Latin America. References to journal articles, books, book chapters, and conference papers in Spanish and English. OU Link to Article does not work in this database. You must search Discover Local (the catalog) for the book or journal title to see if we own it.
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HAPI, the Hispanic American Periodicals IndexMultidisciplinary coverage of Latin America and Hispanics in the U.S. References to journal articles, book reviews (through 2001), documents, original literary works in Spanish, Portuguese, and English.
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Index IslamicusIslam, the Middle East and the Muslim world, all time periods. References to books, book reviews, and journal articles.
Business and Economics
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ABI/INFORM Complete (now called ProQuest One Business)Focus is on business and management topics, but includes many other subjects as well. Full text and references to journal and magazine articles.
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Business Source EliteCovers business, management, economics, banking, finance, and accounting. Materials indexed include scholarly and peer-reviewed journals. Some full text available.
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EconLitIndexes literature focusing on economics and economists' views on social issues. Materials indexed include books, chapters, working papers and dissertations, and abstracts to journal articles.
Geography, including Human Geography
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Anthropology PlusFull text journal articles for anthropology, demography, art history, folklore, museum studies, psychology, and religious studies.
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GEOBASE (part of Engineering Village)Choose GEOBASE. Covers geography, geology, ecology, international development, and related disciplines. Materials indexed include journals, books, conference proceedings, and reports.
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SocINDEXSociology and other social and behavioral sciences. References to journal articles, books, and conference papers.
History Databases
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America: History and Life (1910- )U.S. and Canadian topics, prehistory to the present. References of links to the full text of journal articles, books, book reviews, dissertations, etc. The library has licensed this database for 6 simultaneous users.
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Historical Abstracts (1955- )World history (except the U.S. and Canada), 1450 to the present. References or links to the full text of journal articles, books, book reviews, dissertations, etc. The library has licensed this database for 6 simultaneous users.
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History of Science, Technology, and Medicine (1975- )References or links to the full text of journal articles, conference proceedings, books, book reviews, dissertations, etc. The library has licensed this database for 5 simultaneous users.
Databases
Besides looking directly in recommended journals, try searching databases. Articles from journals from many different disciplines may be relevant to your topic.
- Databases by subject area (also see the Research Guides home page):
Environmental Science
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Annual Review of Environment and ResourcesJournal that synthesizes research literature and identifies the principal contributions in the field.
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GreenFILEDatabase to search for scholarly and general interest titles, as well as government documents and reports, related to the the positive and negative ways humans affect the environment.
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Natural Science CollectionSearches across multiple ProQuest science databases. If the results are too heavy on the hard sciences, look at the left hand side facets, click the down arrow next to the "database" facet, click "more" and then check the boxes to include environmental databases.
International Affairs and Political Science
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Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO) (1991- )Designed to be a comprehensive source for theory and research in international affairs. Includes working papers from university research institutes, occasional papers from NGOs, foundation-funded research projects, proceedings from conferences, books, journals, and policy briefs. Some full text.
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PAIS (Public Affairs Information Service) International (with Archive, 1914- )Public and social policy issues, foreign and domestic. References to journal articles, government documents, books, pamphlets, yearbooks, directories.
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Worldwide Political Science AbstractsCovers international literature in political science and its complementary fields, including international relations, law, and public administration/policy.
Multidisciplinary Databases
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Academic Search CompleteMultidisciplinary database covering social sciences, humanities, education, physical and life sciences, and ethnic studies.
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Dissertation Abstracts (aka ProQuest Dissertations & Theses)References to U.S. doctoral dissertations completed at accredited institutions since 1861 (abstracts since 1980) and dissertations and theses, most with abstracts, from the U.K. and Ireland since 1716. Many dissertations 1997 to 2010s, are full text. PLEASE NOTE: Many universities have started archiving dissertations locally rather than through this database. Try a Google search on the topic or author to see if you can locate the dissertation.
Find most OU dissertations full text through summer 2013; after that date, find OU dissertations in SHAREOK. -
Google ScholarGoogle Scholar enables you to search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research. Use Google Scholar to find articles from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as scholarly articles available across the web. When off campus, be sure to access Google Scholar settings > library links > type in University of Oklahoma.
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JSTORProvides access to materials in many disciplines. It is a digitized archive of the backfiles of selected scholarly journals. Full text available.
Popular vs Scholarly
If you are not familiar with scholarly publications, it can be difficult to tell the difference between scholarly and popular periodicals. There are no definitive rules for distinguishing between the two, but here are some guidelines:
Scholarly (e.g., academic journals):
- Are written by professionals within an academic field or discipline.
- Contain research projects, methodology, and theory.
- Have few, if any, advertisements.
- Use college-level or specialized vocabulary of the discipline.
- Include articles with extensive bibliographies, footnotes, or other documentation.
- Graphics are often tables, charts, and diagrams.
- Are peer-reviewed or refereed.
- A simple explanation of peer review: other scholars in the field have evaluated a work. Check a journal's website to see what it says about the peer review or referee process. See this page, for example.
- NOTE: Even though many databases allow you to limit by peer review, it's not a guarantee that every article so limited will actually be a peer reviewed research article. Peer reviewed journals also contain non peer reviewed content such as book reviews and editorials.
Popular (e.g., magazines, newspapers):
- Are written by journalists.
- Contain general news articles written to inform, update, or introduce a new issue.
- Have many full-color, full-page advertisements.
- Use a general, non-technical vocabulary.
- Include articles with little or no documentation.
- Graphics are often full-color pictures and illustrations.