Databases for Access to Periodicals
The databases on this page will help you identify scholarly, popular, and news articles, as well as other research, on topics for this class.
Finding the full text of an article
If the article citations you find do not include full text, click on the Find it @ NU link, which searches across many other databases to find electronic full text of the article, if it exists in the NU Library electronic environment. If we don't have access to that article, Find it @ NU will also provide a link to Interlibrary Loan, where you can order a copy. If Interlibrary Loan finds that we own a print copy of the journal, they will send you an electronic copy of the article. If we don't own that particular journal, they will need to get a copy from another library, which will take longer.
If you find a particular article cited in a book or in another article, or in one of the special encyclopedias listed in this guide, it is best to proceed to NUSearch and do a journal title search in the advanced search. NUSearch will lead you to both electronic and paper copies of the journal owned by Northwestern. If we only own a paper copy, it is usually possible to request an article scan of that particular article.
If we don't have a particular journal at all, or don't own the issue that your article is in, it is possible to request the article through Interlibrary Loan. Keep in mind, however, that getting the article form another library may take as long as a week.
To find these and other databases to which Northwestern University Library subscribes, you can also go to the library homepage and choose Find Databases.
- Humanities & Social Sciences Index Retrospective This link opens in a new windowHumanities & Social Sciences Index Retrospective offers older (pre-1984) coverage comparable to the more recent Humanities Abstracts and Social Sciences Abstracts. That is, it indexes a range of major journals in the social sciences and humanities, with a few more general journals, going back to 1907.
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new windowThis multidisciplinary database provides access to articles from journals, magazines, and reference sources across all subject areas. Coverage is primarily from 1980 to the present, with some older content.
- Readers' Guide Retrospective 1890-1982 This link opens in a new windowIndexes articles published in the most important popular magazines published in the United States from 1890 until 1982.Provides some links to full text. A key resource for identifying what was published in the popular press during this era.
- Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals This link opens in a new windowThe Avery Index to Architectural Periodicalsindexesarticles published in U.S. and foreign journals 1930-present coveringinternational, scholarly and popular periodical literature on the architecture and design of Europe, Asia, Latin America and Australia. It also provides citation records for architects' obituaries.Subjects include architecture, city planning, conservation and restoration, interior design, museums, and sustainable design.
- America: History & Life This link opens in a new windowAmerica: History & Life is an index of literature covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada, from prehistory to the present. The database indexes journals from 1964 to the present and also includes citations and links to book and media reviews. Strong English-language journal coverage but also included are abstracts in English of articles published in more than 40 languages.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowDigitized, full-text versions of core scholarly journals across disciplines.While coverage of these journals goes back to the first issue, for most journals the most recent issues will be for 3-5 years ago.
- NUsearch This link opens in a new windowNUsearch does include an article search, which draws from some of the databases listed above, and others. It can, however, return somewhat unfocused results, but can be particularly useful for subjects with a limited literature.
Databases for Access to Newspapers
- Chicago Tribune (ProQuest Historic File)Full text and page images of the Chicago Tribune, 1849-1993.
- Chicago Tribune (Current file)Full text 1985 to present.
- Chicago Defender (ProQuest Historical Newspapers)Full text and images, 1910-1975.
- Daily Northwestern (America's Historical Newspapers)Full text and page images from 1910 to 2016. Also includes earlier publications Northwestern (1881-1910), Vidette (1878-1880), and Tripod (1871-1880).
- Access World News This link opens in a new windowIncludes full text of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1986 to the present.
- Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new windowIncludes full text of the Chicago Defender from 1989 to present.
- Nexis Uni This link opens in a new windowNexis Uni features news, business and legal sources from LexisNexis, including U.S. Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1790, with an intuitive interface that offers quick discovery across all content types.
