Periodical Databases
What are they good for? These databases help you locate relevant articles in scholarly journals, magazines and newspapers. In many cases, the full text of the article is available right in the database. When that is not the case, always click on the gold InfoLink button 
to see if we subscribe to the periodical in print or online. Chances are good that we do.
We subscribe to many databases or online indexes. Those we've listed below tend to focus on current events, controversial topics and commentary (opinion pieces) that may be hard to locate elsewhere.
- Academic Search Elite This link opens in a new windowThis multi-disciplinary database offers full text for nearly 2,000 scholarly journals, including more than 1,500 peer-reviewed titles. Covering virtually every area of academic study, Academic Search Elite offers full text information dating as far back as 1985. This database is updated on a daily basis.
- Access World News Research Collection This link opens in a new windowCurrent and archived information from thousands of local, regional, national, and international news sources. Find diverse perspectives on topics related to business and economics, controversial issues, criminal justice, education, environmental studies, health, international studies, performing and fine arts, political science, science, social issues and more from a variety of current and retrospective news media including newspapers, newswires, broadcast transcripts, blogs, periodicals, videos and web-only content. Includes the Chicago Tribune and some Iowa newspapers.
- CQ Researcher This link opens in a new windowWritten by experienced journalists, footnoted and professionally fact-checked. CQ Researcher provides in-depth coverage of the most important issues of the day.
- New York Times, 1851-2019 (Proquest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new windowFull-text access to the New York Times from 1851 (New York Daily Times) to 2019.
- OpinionArchives This link opens in a new windowOpinionArchives provides electronic archives for journals of opinion, including The Nation, Commentary, The New Republic, Commonweal, Dissent, NACLA, Orion, American spectator, National review, Harper's magazine, New York review, and the New Yorker. The OpinionArchives metasearch tool provides cross-journal searching for all titles in the archive.
- JSTOR (Journal Storage) This link opens in a new window
This link opens in a new window
Provides image and full-text online access to back issues of selected scholarly journals in history, economics, political science, philosophy, mathematics and other fields of the humanities and social sciences. Consult the online tables of contents for holdings, as coverage varies for each titles. Journals may be searched across multiple titles as well as by the individual titles below
Note that this database comprises mostly back issues: for most titles the JSTOR database does NOT include full text of the most recent 3 to 5 years.
Bibliographic Style
What is a bibliographic style? When professors assign a term paper, they usually expect you to provide a list of the sources you consulted in writing the paper. They may also expect you to cite your sources at the point in your paper where you refer to them, either as a footnote or an in-text citation. They will expect you to provide a bibliography or works cited list at the end of the paper.
In order to recognize what it is you've cited, whether it is a book, a magazine article, or a newspaper article, they expect your citations to be in a standard format. Sometimes the professor will tell you which style to use. Modern Language Association (MLA) and American Psychological Association (APA) are two popular styles used on campus, but there are others. Other times you are free to pick the bibliographic style, as long as you use it consistently.
If you are not already familiar with a particular bibliographic style, it can be frustrating to learn. Hopefully the guides and other tools below will help ease that frustration. Besides the items listed below, see also the Books tab at the top of this page, where we've listed some style guides, both print and e-books, available in the UI Libraries.
Citation Formats. A guide from UI Libraries with examples of the most common citation forms for APA, Chicago and MLA styles.
EasyBib. An automated citation generator on the web. Free if using MLA style.
EndNote Basic. A web-based citation management and bibliography tool. UI students can register for a free account.
Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL). A great site with tutorials, exercises and examples of APA and MLA style.
University of Iowa Writing Center. Schedule an appointment with a tutor for help with your writing project.
Subject Guide
Online@Iowa Tutorials
Can't find what you are looking? The following tutorials can help.