Skip to Main Content

World History: Searching in Databases

Example Topic and Keywords

Topic: What was the impact of the Crusades on the Byzantine Empire?

Based on your topic, you'll need to develop a search strategy and some keywords. Our Develop a Research Strategy guide walks you through this process. In the examples below, we'll use some example keywords:

  • Crusades
  • "Holy Wars"
  • "Byzantine Empire"
  • Byzantine
  • economy

About Historical Abstracts

Historical Abstracts searches many peer-reviewed History journals, but when you search it, you will not immediately retrieve full-text articles. This is an Indexing and Abstracting database, so you will get a citation and an abstract that describes the work.

Conducting a Search in Historical Abstracts

The screenshot examples below search for peer-reviewed articles about the Byzantine Empire and crusades.

  • I used quotes to search for words together as a phrase (i.e. "revolutionary war"), and used another field to break up my keywords into concepts.
  • I clicked the blue search button to find articles.

Historical Abstracts keyword search for "byzantine empire" and crusades. The Search button is highlighted

 

Reviewing Search Results in Historical Abstracts

This search found 33 articles.

  • Select Peer Reviewed from the options below the search bar to show just scholarly journal articles in your results.
  • Results are sorted by relevance with the most relevant articles appearing at the top of the list. You can change this using the sort drop-down.
  • Options to access the full text will appear as "Access now" or as "Access Options". If the full text is not available in the database, the access option available will appear as "Check for full text", which you can use to find the item in another database or request it through interlibrary loan. 

Search results for "byzantine empire" AND crusades. The peer revieiwed button, number of results, sort drop=down, and access options drop=down are highlighted

About JSTOR

JSTOR provides many full-text scholarly articles in different fields but does not provide access to the most current years; instead, coverage usually ends about 3-5 years ago, depending on the journal.

Conducting a Search in JSTOR

The screenshot examples below search for articles about the Crusades and the Byzantine Empire.

  • I put my keywords into different search boxes to make the search simpler.
  • I used quotes to search for words together as a phrase (i.e. "byzantine empire").
  • I checked the box next to Articles under Item Type to show just articles in my search results.
  • Click the Submit Advanced Search button to start searching for articles.

An example search using the keywords Byzantine Empire and Crusades. Remember to check the box next to Articles under Item Type to show just articles in your search results.

Reviewing Search Results in JSTOR

This search found 803 articles related to my keywords. 

  • Results are automatically sorted by relevance, so the most relevant articles are displayed first in the list of results.
  • To read an article, click on the Download PDF button and accept JSTOR's terms.

This search found 803 articles. Click the Download PDF button to save or print an article.