Research Guides: Master History Pages: How to Search JSTOR

Librarian

Kristina Claunch

Contact:

936-294-1520
kclaunch@shsu.edu
Library (NGL) Room 223G

How to Setup Your Search

Use Advanced Search.
Check the box for "Articles" (unless you are specifically searching for book reviews or 17th-19th century British pamphlets).
If you want results from a particular time period (such as the 1940s), use the Date Range boxes to enter a start and end year.
Select "English" as the language (unless you do fluently read another of the languages listed).
Check the boxes for approximately 1 to 4 subject areas from the list provided. This really does help cut down on irrelevant results.
- History is a given, and may be the only one you need.
- Other relevant subjects will depend on what you are researching.

Start with a specific, focused search and work out towards a more general search when necessary. Often you will drown in results if you try to start with a general search.
Put phrases in quotation marks, e.g. "Civil War".
Use the language of the time period of the documents that you hope to find. An article written in 1902 may use very different language than an article written in 2002, and you may not find both of those documents with the same search terms. Give some thought to what you hope to find, and try to structure your search (or a series of multiple searches) accordingly.

Search with short, simple words and phrases. Use the smallest pieces, not whole sentences.
Try different versions of your search using synonyms or other ways of describing a topic.
- Example: American Revolution, Revolutionary War, America's War of Independence, ...
Put quotation marks around phrases (2 or more words that you want to find in a specific order).
Connect various words and phrases with AND, OR, and NOT.
- AND = less results. Example: causes AND economic
- OR = more results (often use with synonyms). Example: Britain OR "Great Britain" OR England
- NOT = exclude ideas for less results. Example: causes NOT slavery

To find more primary sources in the library's book collection, try these search strategies on the catalog's Advanced Search page:

1. Enter some words to describe your topic in the keyword row. In the subject row, enter the word "sources".

2. Enter some words to describe your topic in the keyword row. In the subject row, enter a word such as "correspondence", "diaries", or "personal narratives".

3. Enter some words to describe your topic in the keyword row. In the next row, change the first box to also say keyword, and enter the phrase "documents OR documentary" in that second search box.

4. For primary sources written by a certain person, click Browse on the right side of the search page. Enter the person's name backwards, like "Washington George" and click subject. In the list of subject headings that appear, look for headings that end with words such as "correspondence", "diaries", "notebooks sketchbooks etc.", "manuscripts", or "oratory."