Journals
MLA or JSTOR?
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MLA International Bibliography is the research tool for literature because it most accurately reflects the state of literary studies in the United States and internationally. MLA includes listings of scholarly journal articles, books, book chapters, and dissertations, published from 1926 to the present. Abstracts are oftentimes not included, so you need to depend on subject headings to determine what the material is covering. Those subject headings are the key to organizing your search strategy.
MLA is excellent when you want to learn current research trends for an author or text.
JSTOR contains full-text articles published in scholarly journals from a wide range of disciplines, including language & literature. The most recently published articles (past 3-5 years) are not available, but much older ones are. Keyword searching can be tricky since JSTOR scans the entire article for your term(s). Choosing and combining your keywords is key.
JSTOR is excellent when you need historical research on an author or text, as well as when you want to learn who else cited a particular article.
Recommended Databases for Finding Articles & Essays
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowProvides image and full-text online access of core academic journals in a variety of disciplines in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities.
- Project MUSE This link opens in a new windowProvides online access to current issues of selected scholarly journals in the arts and humanities, social sciences, and mathematics.
- Gale literature resource center This link opens in a new windowProvides access to biographies, bibliographies and critical analysis of authors from every age and literary discipline. Covers novelists, poets, essayists, journalists and other writers, with in-depth coverage of the most-studied authors. Includes essays on the history of specific publishing companies.
- Shakespeare survey This link opens in a new window"Shakespeare Survey is a yearbook of Shakespeare studies and production. Since 1948 Survey has published the best international scholarship in English and many of its essays have become classics of Shakespeare criticism (from database)." Part of Cambridge Core
- World Shakespeare bibliography This link opens in a new windowIncludes annotated entries for all important books, articles, book reviews, dissertations, theatrical productions, audiovisual materials, electronic media, and other scholarly and popular materials related to Shakespeare. The goal is to add material published or produced since 1900. Each year, coverage will move forward one year and backwards at least three years.
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