JSTOR: Database Introduction & Search Tips

Find words close to each other

This is a proximity tool that searches for two words that are within either 5, 10, or 25 words of each other in the text.

Example: When searching for the cause of the bubonic plague, you could use the search below to find the words "plague" and "cause" within 5 words of each other. This only works with single words--so a search for "United States" and "war" would not work.

Make certain terms more important

You can increase the importance of any term in your search by using the caret (^) symbol followed by a number that represents the rise in relevance or importance.

Example:  a search for plague^7 England tells will produce results where the word 'plague' in a record is seven times more frequent than the word 'England'.

Enrich your research with Images

Images on JSTOR have been shared by partnering institutions like universities, museums, community, and private collections including Artstor Digital Library. For this reason, image quality and size can vary. Image citations and various export options are available on the full image detail page with each image. 

Style options to cite an image include:

• MLA

• APA

• Chicago

Use the links below to learn more about saving images, citing images, downloading images, and export options.