JSTOR

Series: Our favourite State Library eresources.

People often ask us what our most loved eresources are. Admittedly we all have a favourite, or two, or three. It’s hard to pick as there are so many wonderful State Library eresources available. In this series our Librarians and Library Technicians share with you their most favourite eresources and how they’ve been used to solve research queries.

Next in the series we look at JSTOR, a big favourite of Library Technician Katy Roberts.

So why is JSTOR so fabulous?

JSTOR provides access to more than 12 million scholarly journal articles, books and primary sources, all from an archival perspective. You can find material on a range of subjects including history, Asian studies, Middle Eastern studies, religion, music, performing or visual arts, business, literature, science, economics and even genealogy.

Best of all, you can access JSTOR online from home with your free State Library membership. 

Who uses JSTOR?

The database is used by everyone!  JSTOR collaborates with the academic community so high school students, university students and general researchers know that the information found in this database is high quality and authoritative.

Background

JSTOR is part of Ithaka, a USA based organisation which provides research to academic and cultural communities. JSTOR’s aim was to digitise material to assist university and college libraries in providing adequate space for the ever-increasing number of published journals.

Searching

JSTOR can be searched using basic or advanced searches, or can be browsed by subject, title or publisher. Libguides (research guides) are available on every topic and these are organised by group, subject or type. The database is available in many languages.

Most JSTOR articles are full text and can be downloaded as pdf, saved, emailed, or shared via Facebook, Twitter and other channels. You can use JSTOR’s 'Workspace' function to keep track of your research.

JSTOR contains archival material and the newest information found will be 1-5 years old. This means that while it isn’t the database to find current information on COVID-19, it is the ideal database to find articles about pandemics throughout history. A basic search for ‘pandemics’ results in over 5,000 journal articles, book chapters and research reports.

JSTOR is US based and covers international journals, so often Australian content isn’t the first found. Using the 'Advanced Search' option and including the word “Australia” as a search term is a good way to find specific Australian content.

'Browsing by Subject' is a useful way to discover which journals are available on different topics, and Australian information can be found using this search strategy. A date range for each journal is included in the search results, so researchers can quickly see what is available for each title.

Join now, start searching JSTOR, and discover why it is so popular.

Look out for the next blog in this series #FavouriteEresources

More information

Eresources - /research-collections/information-collections/eresources

Databases - http://onesearch.slq.qld.gov.au/primo-explore/dbsearch?vid=SLQ&lang=en_US

Library membership - /get-involved/become-member

Ask Us - /plan-my-visit/services/ask-us

Library from home - /libraryfromhome