Art History Module: Lesson 4: JSTOR

Hello! This video tutorial will demonstrate how to find and access articles through the library database JSTOR.

To access library databases, click the gray Databases button on the library website.

JSTOR is listed in the Library's Recommended Databases list. JSTOR is a core database for many disciplines, including humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences. It also includes many historical articles, dating to the 1800s. To access this database, click its title.

If prompted to log in, your username is your SF ID number @sfcollege.edu. On the next screen, enter your college password. You may not see this screen if you are already logged in to Office 365 elsewhere.

This is the advanced search screen for JSTOR. Unlike other databases, JSTOR does not use subject headings or controlled vocabulary. Therefore, you will need to be as precise as possible in your search terms. Use quotation marks to keep phrases together and include alternate keywords with the term OR. Place different concepts in separate search boxes.

Let's say you were looking for articles about the ethics of euthanasia. Another term for euthanasia is assisted suicide. Since these are synonyms, both terms can be placed in the first search box with the word OR between. Assisted suicide can be placed in quotation marks to keep the phrase together. In the second search box, I typed ethic*. This tells the database to search all words that start with ethic, which includes ethics and ethical.

euthanasia OR "assisted suicide"
AND ethic*

JSTOR is mostly peer-reviewed journals, so there is no limit for scholarly articles. However, there are several different types of formats included, such as books and reviews, so you may wish to limit to Articles. You may also need to limit the language to English.

JSTOR also allows you to limit your search to results found in journals of different disciplines. Scroll down to see the Journal Filters. Be sure to carefully examine all listed disciplines, as many topics may fit in several categories. For a search about the ethics of euthanasia, two good disciplines to check would be Health Sciences and Philosophy. Keep in mind, however, that many topics are multidisciplinary, so you might be missing out on good results from other types of journals.

On the results page, the article titles are in a large font, followed by the authors and journal information. Click the title to view the article.

The article record contains an embedded version of the article, which can be navigated with the embedded arrows.

JSTOR will tell you how many times your search terms appear in the article, along with the page numbers.

To cite this article, click the Cite button. JSTOR provides citations in MLA, Chicago Notes and Bibliography, and APA styles. Be aware that the generated citations may not be correct.

Click the Download button to open the article in PDF format, which may be easier to read.

Because JSTOR does not have a direct way to email an article for later use, you should instead copy the Remote Access URL. This URL will route you through the Office 365 log in system and take you back to the full text of the article. Please note that the Stable URL option will not work off-campus.

If your search results do not seem relevant enough, you may want to consider limiting your search terms to Item Title. This may help find more targeted articles but may also eliminate many relevant articles that do not use your search terms in the title of the article or journal.

All search results will now include your search terms in the title of the article or journal. This also significantly reduced the number of results. Use the Item Title option carefully, to avoid narrowing your search too much.

This concludes the video tutorial on using JSTOR. If you have any questions, please contact a librarian:

352-395-5409
reference@sfcollege.edu
Building Y, NW Campus
sfcollege.edu/library