CCSF Library: English (Writing About Literature): Articles

Article Sources

Description

Magazines, journals, and newspapers, are types of "periodicals" - as in, they are published periodically throughout the year. There are many different intended audiences.
- Magazines are generally intended for a broader, public audience.
  - Examples: Scientific American, Vogue, and The Atlantic.
- Journals are often intended for a scholarly audience (scholars, academics, researchers, etc.) Many articles in these journals go through a rigorous publishing process called peer-review: they are written by an academic, submitted to the journal, and then circulated to experts in the field for checking before being published.
  - Examples: New England Journal of Medicine, The William and Mary Quarterly.
- Newspapers are usually written for a broader, public audience. They share the news of the day.
  - Examples: The New York Times, USA Today, The Guardian, the San Francisco Chronicle.

What do they contain?

Articles

How often are these sources published?

Magazines - usually monthly & quarterly (seasonally)
Journals - less frequently; can be monthly, but more likely quarterly
Newspapers - usually daily

Found in:

OneSearch - Periodicals
Easily locate CCSF subscribed periodicals (newspapers, journals, and magazines) in this particular view of OneSearch.
Journal Browse (BrowZine)
A clickable view of scholarly journals subscribed to by the CCSF Library.

Flipster This link opens in a new window
Easy-to-use digital magazine platform with People, National Geographic, and Archaeology. Pilot subscription runs through end of June 2025.
America's News This link opens in a new window
Features national, regional and local news content that delivers diverse perspectives on practically any issue, event or person as covered by the U.S. news media. With current content and archives back to the 1980s from more than 3,700 sources. Includes the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner. Hot Topics can be browsed as well.
US Major Dailies This link opens in a new window
Provides access to The New York Times (1980-present), Washington Post (1988-present), Los Angeles Times (1985-present), Chicago Tribune (1985-present), and the Wall Street Journal (1984-present). Available by 8 AM U.S. Eastern time each day. Supplemental website content from these publications may not be included in this text based resource.

Search Strategies

Digital searching can work well when you combine your search words with "Boolean" connectors.

Boolean Connector	What does it do?
AND	narrows the results of a search, though without this operator, the AND is usually implied. This searches only for items containing both search terms. Example: health disparities AND urban
OR	expands or broadens the results of a search. This searches for either term, thus widening the possibilities. This is helpful when searching using synonyms. ("OR is more.") Example search string: genetically modified OR transgenic OR GMO
NOT	excludes specific terms that may be clouding your result set with irrelevant results not related to your topic. This is helpful when trying to remove some results. Example: nutrition NOT diet

Other strategies:

Identify key concepts. Include the useful or relevant keywords in your search, as well as synonyms, rather than a full question.
Use "Filters" to limit your source type, time period, and location.
Need "scholarly" articles? Use the "Peer-Reviewed Journals" filter.

Recommended Databases for Literary Research

Databases are owned by a few different companies, and the library pays for access to make relevant sources available for your research. The journals in these databases are rarely available for free on the open web. Journals can be scholarly, which means they are academic in nature and may be peer-reviewed. Peer-reviewed articles go through a rigorous publishing process: they are written by an academic, submitted to the journal, and then circulated to experts in the field for checking before being published.

Literature Resource Center (Gale) This link opens in a new window
More than 850,000 full-text articles including literary criticism, author biographies, poetry and interviews. Sources include literary journals and magazine, as well as titles such as Contemporary Literary Criticism, Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism, Literature Criticism from 1400-1800, Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism, Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, as well as Drama Criticism, Poetry Criticism, Shakespearean Criticism, Short Story Criticism and Children's Literature Review, and Contemporary Authors. Content is updated continuously.
Literary Reference Center Plus This link opens in a new window
"Combining information from major respected reference works, books, literary journals, and original content from EBSCO, Literary Reference Center Plus features... author biographies, plot summaries and work overviews, full-text essays from leading publishers, literary reference books and monographs, cover-to-cover full text for literary magazines and journals, book reviews ... poems from hundreds of sources, short stories, classic texts, author interviews, and much more."
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
JSTOR is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources in a variety of subject areas including economics, history, sociology, and political science.
Digital Theatre+ This link opens in a new window
Platform for the study of performing arts and drama texts, providing unlimited access to thousands of full-length productions, videos, and educational resources.
OneSearch This link opens in a new window
Cross-searches most CCSF Library databases. Some resources are excluded. Learn more about searching in OneSearch.

English (Writing About Literature)

What are you looking for?

OneSearch

What about articles behind a paywall?

Assistance