Collins Memorial Library: SSI2-169: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: Scholarly Articles

Featured Journals

These journals contain scholarly articles related to diverse aspects of Shakespeare's work.

Shakespeare Quarterly
Produced by Folger Shakespeare Library in association with George Washington University.
Shakespeare Bulletin
A peer-reviewed journal of performance criticism and scholarship on Shakespeare and Renaissance drama.
Shakespeare Studies
Contains essays and studies by critics and cultural historians. Published annually.
Shakespeare Survey
A yearbook of Shakespeare studies and production.
Early Modern Literary Studies
A journal of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English literature.

E-Journal Collections

These e-journal collections provide access to many journals in the humanities, but they are more limited in coverage compared to subject databases. In most cases, it's better to search subject databases to identify articles, and then search the journal title in Primo to link to the materials in these e-journal collections.

JSTOR
An interdisciplinary journal archive. It includes archives of over one thousand leading academic journals across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, as well as select monographs and other materials valuable for academic work.
Project MUSE
Interdisciplinary database includes books and articles from scholarly publishers with focus on humanities and social science.

Recommended Subject Databases

There are several databases from which to choose when you are seeking scholarly work. For this course, most of you will want to start your search with MLAIB (literature and linguistics) or Historical Abstracts (world history). Always make sure that you've selected the most appropriate database to search!

MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
The key database for identifying scholarly books, essays, articles, and dissertations on modern literature in all languages. Also covers cultural studies, folklore, film studies, and linguistics.
Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Indexes articles, books, book chapters, and dissertations on all aspects of world history (minus the United States and Canada) from 1450 to the present.

Additional Subject Databases

Arts & Humanities Database This link opens in a new window
Features hundreds of titles covering Art, Architecture, Design, History, Philosophy, Music, Literature, Theatre and Cultural Studies.
Gender Studies Database
Covers the full spectrum of gender-engaged scholarship inside and outside academia.
Performing Arts Periodicals Database
Provides indexing, abstracts and some full-text, for international periodicals. Covers a broad spectrum of the arts and entertainment industry - including dance, drama, theater, stagecraft, musical theater, circus performance, opera, pantomime, puppetry, magic, performance art, film, television and more.
Literature Criticism
Includes overviews by topic, author, and work, as well as excerpts from articles, books, and essays written by scholars.
Philosophers Index
Covers scholarly research in all major fields of philosophy.

General Database Search Tips

Try these strategies to become a better, more efficient searcher -- and help you find articles that you can actually use:

Build your search vocabulary -- keep a running list of key words, phrases, concepts, synonyms, and any related terms or ideas that you find.
Use advanced search features -- narrow your search with "AND," expand your search with "OR," or search in specified fields (i.e., author, title, publication, abstract).
Use search limits -- control the types of results you get (academic journals? language?) and how they are displayed (date? relevance?) so that you're only looking at results you can use.
Try multiple searches and evaluate your results -- try to figure out why you got the results you did, and adjust your search until you get closer to results you can use.
Use database descriptors -- once you find an article that looks good, see what descriptors or "subject headings" were assigned to it in the database. You can use these to search only for articles that have the same descriptors attached.

Tipasa: Interlibrary Loan

If your article is not available at Collins Library, you've got another option for getting it. Use Tipasa, our interlibrary loan service.

Tipasa is linked to your library account so you'll need to log in to use it.

Once you are logged in, either go directly to Tipasa and manually enter the information, or, if you're using a database, look for a shortcut link to automatically fill out the form:

Allow at least a week for the article to come. If your article is delivered in electronic format, you'll receive an email with a link to follow as soon as it's arrived.