UWM Libraries Research and Course Guides: WAK HIS 102: History of the United States since 1865: Scholarly Articles

Database Links and How-to Videos

Academic Search Complete
Academic Search Complete is a comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 7,000 full-text periodicals, including nearly 6,000 peer-reviewed journals. In addition to full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for more than 11,000 journals and a total of more than 11,600 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc. The database features PDF content going back as far as 1887, with the majority of full text titles in native (searchable) PDF format. Searchable cited references are provided for more than 1,000 journals.
America: History & Life with Full Text
Database of literature covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada, from prehistory to the present. With selective indexing for 1,700 journals from 1955 to present, America: History & Life with Full Text also provides full-text coverage of more than 200 journals and nearly 100 books.
JSTOR
Archival and current issues of more than 2,400 scholarly journals across more than 60 academic disciplines (title lists) along with a growing number of open access ebooks. The UW-Milwaukee Libraries have acquired access to JSTOR collections Arts and Sciences I-VIII and the subject collections for Biological Sciences, Jewish Studies and Ireland.

It can be difficult to identify scholarly sources. Not all scholarly sources look the same, and popular and scholarly sources can have similar characteristics. Determining whether a source is popular or scholarly involves reviewing a variety of source characteristics, time, and practice. Here are two examples of scholarly history sources:

Article: The Press, Paper Shortages, and Revolution in Early America by Roger Mellen
I know this is a scholarly article because:
1) I googled the author: he has a PhD in American History (he's an expert) and is associated with New Mexico State University
2) It was published in the journal Media History, which is a peer-reviewed journal
3)The article has an abstract (summary paragraph). Not all history articles have abstracts, but lots of scholarly articles have abstracts
4)There are quotes from primary sources throughout the article
4) There are 5 pages of cited sources
5) It's pretty long (20 pages)
6) The author uses academic terms like "civic discourse"
7) There are no decorative images

A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience by Emerson W. Baker
ISBN: 9780199890354
Publication Date: 2014-01-01
I know this is a scholarly source because:
1) It's written by a History professor (expert)
2) It's published by a university press (Oxford University Press)
3)The images in the book are charts or reproduced primary sources, and the author lists all of them at the beginning of the book. This tells me they are informative images, not decorative images.
4)Most chapters have 60+ cited sources
5)It cites primary sources and scholarly sources