Collins Memorial Library: STHS 200: History of Modern Science and Technology: Database searching

Research Databases

Subject databases cover a specific discipline and provide the widest range of access to scholarly sources (articles, books, chapters in books) within that discipline. They are used for in-depth research. History of Science, Technology, and Medicine (HSTM) is an example of a subject database. It indexes articles, books, and chapters in books.

Multidisciplinary databases cover many disciplines and often contain a variety of different types of sources. JSTOR is an example of a multidisciplinary database. It provides full-text access to hundreds of scholarly journals, scholarly books, images, and primary source sets.

History of Science, Technology and Medicine (HSTM)
An international bibliography for the history of science, technology, and medicine and their influence on culture, from pre-history to the present. Includes records of journal articles, conference proceedings, books, dissertations, serials, maps and other materials.
IsisCB
IsisCB is an open access discovery service for the history of science, built on 40-years of data in the Isis Bibliography of the History of Science.
JSTOR

An multidisciplinary 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. Includes the Artstor image collections.

General Database Search Tips

Try these strategies to become a better, more efficient searcher.

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 finding sources that are most relevant to your assignment or project.
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.