Boolean Operators: Use AND, OR, NOT to expand or narrow results.
“Phrase Searching”: Use quotation marks (“”) around words to search for an exact phrase.
Wildcard/Truncation: Use an asterisk (*) to search for words with similar beginnings.
Scholarly journals contain articles written by, and addressed to, experts in a discipline. Scholarly journals present the research of experts in a field, although these journals also often carry opinion pieces or even advertisements unique to the field addressed by the journal.
Peer-reviewed journals (also called refereed or juried journals) send submitted articles to one or more experts for review before deciding to publish them. This review process helps ensure that published articles reflect solid scholarship in a field. Most often, the experts reviewing an article make critical comments on the text, comments that the author must incorporate into the article before its publication.
Visit the reference desk
Live Chat with a librarian
(805) 437-3362
Schedule an appointment
Writing & Multiliteracy Center
Search the Library's FAQs
Below are a list of useful historical library databases, which will include both secondary and primary sources in a variety of formats (scholarly articles, newspaper articles, ebooks, manuscripts, images...). The content is organized by reference databases (a great place to start), top databases in history, an World History databases, and databases on Latin America and the Caribbean. Remember, if you cannot find the article you need in our catalog, use our Interlibrary Loan program to see if another library send us a copy.
Additional information on search strategies and terminology are located in the left column of the page. See the United States tab on the left for databases focusing on United States history and its peoples.
Reference databases are a great place to start your research, especially in a new field or topic of study. Think of these as the Academic Wikipedia. These encyclopedia and dictionary resources provide peer-reviewed introductory and background information on a topic, where you can learn the language experts in a field use as well as helpful bibliographies.
