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JSTOR: Database Introduction & Search Tips

Get help using JSTOR! Learn how to use the Advanced Search; Near 5, 10, or 25 tool; and Topic Search.

What is in JSTOR?

Before you start a search, keep the following in mind:

Our full-text vs ALL the full-text

The default setting for search results is to show matches for only content licensed or purchased by the library. If you scroll down the results page, you can change the Access Type filer to Everything so you can see all results, including content you cannot download or read online. If you want the full text of an item, you can always request it through interlibrary loan. 

Material Types

Results will include images and content from articles, books, and pamphlets from cover to cover.

Lack of Recent Items

There is a waiting period, called the "moving wall," between when articles are published and when they are available through JSTOR, which typically ranges from 3 to 5 years. JSTOR does not search newspaper or popular magazine articles. So content may not appear in JSTOR until months or years after its initial publication date.

Search Options

There are two search forms on JSTOR.org, a Basic Search and an Advanced Search. 

Basic Search

Enter a keyword or search terms in the box on the JSTOR homepage. 

Search Tips:

Use Quotes

JSTOR automatically searches full text and puts the word "and" between terms. To search for a phrase or exact wording, put quotes around the terms. 

Examples: “to be or not to be”, "United States of America", "Spanish Flu"

Combine Terms with AND, OR, NOT 

Create complex searches with Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT). If you enter multiple search terms without an operator, they'll be joined with AND by default. So a search for cats mice (without quotation marks) will only return items if they match both "cats" and "mice".

Examples: "tea trade” AND China, "Soviet Union OR Russia"

Advanced Search

Find better results with the Advanced Search

We recommend using the Advanced Search. This option allows you to build more specific searches and narrow your results with filters--resulting in a smaller number of results that are more relevant.

Search Tips:

  • Terms: Use multiple Term(s) boxes to build complex searches

    • Example: "tea trade” AND China, "Soviet Union OR Russia"

  • Fileds: Select from the field drop-downs to limit only search for terms in the item title, author, abstract, or caption text.

  • Access Type:

    • If you need to find an article right now, select the "Content I can access" option

    • If you can wait a few days to get the article through interlibrary loan, select the "Everything" option

Narrow Results

  • Item Type: Select the type of items you are looking for

  • Language: Unless you can read another language fluently, we recommend selecting English

Building a Better Search

Combining or Excluding Terms

Use AND, OR, and NOT (Boolean Operators) to connect and define the relationship between your search terms. Using boolean operators can help to narrow or broaden your search.

Examples:

  • AND: United Kingdom AND England (searches for both the United Kingdom and England)
  • OR: college OR  university (searches for either term)
  • NOT: Nuremberg NOT trial (searches for results containing the word Nuremberg, but will exclude any records which contain the word trial)

Parentheses (aka nesting or grouping)

You can put parentheses around terms while using Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT)  to create more complex searches

Example: (women OR woman OR female) AND leadership.

Quotation Marks

Put quotation marks around terms to search for an exact phrase rather than part of the term.

Example: instead of searching for bubonic plague, search for "bubonic plague" -- this will find results where the two words are next to each other.

Using Wildcards

Wildcards search for alternate spellings and variations on a root word and take the place of one or more characters in a search term.

Using wildcards can help you find variants of a search term; however, it will return a very large number of results. Wildcard characters cannot be used in place of the first letter of a word or within an exact phrase search. 

Common wildcards: 

Tilde symbol (~)

You can find words with spellings similar to your search term by using the tilde (~) symbol at the end of a search term.

Example: Searching for dostoyevsky~ helps find items with dostoyevsky, as well as variant spellings like dostoevsky, dostoievski, dostoevsky, dostoyevski, dostoevskii, dostoevski, etc.

Asterisk (*)

Used for searching for words with the same root spelling. 

Example: Searching for behavior* searches for behavior, behavioral, behaviorist, behaviorism, or behaviorally. 

Question mark (?)

Used for single-character searching.

Examples: Searching for wom?n finds the words woman, women, womyn and searching for organi?ation finds organization or organisation.

Understanding Search Results

Search Results

You can refine results for both Basic and Advanced Searches using the tools on the left-hand side of the results page

  • Access Type: limit your results to content you can access now OR search everything and see all results, including content you cannot download or read online (don't worry, you can request these items through interlibrary loan)

  • Content Type: Limit your results by publication type--view only journal articles, book chapters, or research reports. 

  • Primary Source Content: option to filter results by the type of primary source. (Serial= Journals)

Parts of a Citation

A citation is a reference to a source of information that helps you locate the information.

Citations include identifying information, such as the author, journal title, date of publication, volume, etc. Below is a citation in JSTOR and a breakdown of the various citation elements. 

Citation Elements:

  • Journal Title: American Music

  • Publication Year: 2018

  • Volume: 36 

  • Issue: 4

  • Pages: 467-486

  • Article Title: "Young, Scrappy, and Hungry”: Hamilton, Hip Hop, and Race

  • Author: Kajikawa, Loren