Finding Journal Articles and Journals
The Library's How Do I Find...? guides to finding articles and e-journals provide additional tips and explanatory material.
Identifying Material on Your Topic
Depending upon the nature of your research, you may want to use an index with a subject-specific focus. General interest/multidisciplinary indexes provide broad coverage and are useful as well. Use these indexes and others to see what's been written on your research topic:
- Africa Bibliography not online until 2005
Printed annual from the International African Institute covering books, essays, and articles primarily in the social sciences, environmental sciences, humanities and arts. Shelved in Regenstein's first-floor reference collection. Online access available as special issues of the journal Africa, 2005- . U of C Library subscription
- Africa South of the Sahara : Index to Periodical Literature, 1900-1970 not online
Printed index covers material in the social sciences and material on African life and culture. Includes some articles from the 19th century and a literary index of about 3,000 African literary works. Shelved in Regenstein's first-floor reference collection along with three supplements. See the Library of Congress web site for additional publications on Africa.
- AfricaBib
Provides access to the Bibliography of Africana Periodical Literature Database, the African Women's Database, and additional material. Compiled by Davis Bullwinkle at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock.
- African Index Medicus
International index to African health literature and information sources provided by the Association for Health Information and Libraries in Africa (AHILA) with technical support from the World Health Organization.
- African Journals OnLine (AJOL)
Searchable database of African-published journals. Supported by INASP. Includes table of contents and article abstracts.
- ASA Online
Quarterly overview of journal articles and edited works on Africa in the field of the social sciences and the humanities available in the library of the African Studies Centre, Leiden.
- A Current Bibliography on African Affairs not online
Print bibliography includes original essays, book reviews, and citations for books, articles, government documents, and visual aids. Shelved in Regenstein's first-floor reference collection. (See the publisher's web site for plans regarding online access.)
- International African Bibliography. Bibliographie internationale africaine. not online
See current publication details. Printed bibliography covering articles and monographs. Continues the bibliography of current publications which appeared in the journal Africa, 1929-70. U of C Library subscription
- Quarterly Index of African Periodical Literature
Index of African publications acquired by the Library of Congress Office in Nairobi, Kenya.
Reading Journals on the Web
Search the library catalog or the e-Journals database for titles of individual journals. The following journal collections are good places to begin searching or browsing:
- Academic Search Premier U of C Library subscription
Multidisciplinary indexing and abstracting service covering journals of general interest as well as scholarly publications. Includes extensive full text. Click on "Publications" for information on the coverage of specific journal titles or to browse publications by title or by subject & description. (African is included in the subject & description of many more publications than Africa.)
- Archive of African Journals
To expand free, online access to journals published in Africa, Michigan State University's African e-Journals Project has digitized articles from eleven social science and humanities journals.
- JSTOR U of C Library subscription
Back issues of major scholarly journals. Search or browse African Studies journals.
- Project Muse U of C Library subscription
More recent issues of scholarly journals, including ten African Studies titles.
- SA ePublications U of C Library subscription
Access to numerous journals (the social sciences & humanities collection) within Sabinet Online's South African electronic publications.
Reading Printed Journals
Search the library catalog for individual titles or browse the journals in the Current Periodicals Reading Room on Regenstein's second floor--or in other areas of Regenstein and in other library buildings.
General Information about Journals
Find out more about journals of interest by using catalogs or union lists or directories and analytical tools such as these:
- ISI Web of Knowledge U of C Library subscription
Provides access to Journal Citation Reports and other resources in addition to the Web of Science citation databases.
- The ISSN Portal U of C Library subscription
Find bibliographic records and ISSN numbers for serials. Additional information about the ISSN, or International Standard Serial Number, is available on the ISSN home page.
- Ulrich's Periodicals Directory U of C Library subscription
Entries include information about which databases index the content.
