What makes an article "academic"?
An academic article, also called a scholarly article, is an article written by an expert in an academic field. These articles are intended for other experts and scholars, rather than the general public. There are several ways to determine whether an article is scholarly. While none of these are hard-and-fast rules, they can be useful clues:
- The article is written by researcher(s), professional(s) or other expert(s).
- The article appears in an academic journal rather than a magazine or newspaper.*
- The article is of significant length (usually over five pages).
- The article includes a substantial bibliography or reference list.
- The article is peer reviewed.
- The article presents original research or analysis of a topic.
- The article uses technical or expert-level language.
*It's important to note that academic journals, in addition to articles, also publish editorials, book reviews, film reviews, letters, columns, and other marginalia that are not considered scholarly articles. Make sure you look for some other clues before deciding that you're looking at a scholarly article.
Scholarly Article Databases for Shakespeare
- MLA International Bibliography (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new windowCore index for literature, folklore, language, linguistics, with good coverage of additional topics like film, music, and theater. Over 2 million citations to journal articles, books, proceedings, book chapters, and dissertations. dating 1926 to present.
- World Shakespeare Bibliography This link opens in a new windowCitations (not full text) for all important books, articles, book reviews, dissertations, productions, reviews, electronic media, and more related to Shakespeare and published or produced between 1960 and 2011. International scope, with coverage over 120 languages, and particularly powerful browse feature.
- JSTORFull, digitized backfiles of important academic journals in all disciplines. Complete, full-text searching, which can often pull up articles missed via other searches, especially of older material. Advanced features particularly useful for finding scholarly book reviews.
- Project MUSEFull-text searching of articles from humanities journals, including religion, literature, philosophy, women's studies, film and the arts. Generally covers 1994 to the present, depending on the journal. Advanced features particularly useful for finding scholarly book reviews.
- Humanities International Complete (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new windowFull text of hundreds of journals, books and other published sources, plus millions of article and book records from the Humanities International Index (over 2,000 titles and 2 million records). Sometimes useful for a broader search outside the literature and English studies disciplines.
Theatrical Reviews
- ProQuest Historical NewspapersIncludes New York Times (1851-2006), Boston Globe (1872-1996), American Periodical Series, Chicago Defender (1910-1975), NY Amsterdam News (1922-1993), Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2002)
For more options see our full list of newspaper databases. In each of these databases you may need to use the advanced search features and limit by date.
- Times Digital ArchiveTimes (London) not including the Sunday edition, 1785 to 1985.
- Northeast Newsstream (Proquest) This link opens in a new windowBoston Globe (1980-current), Boston Herald (1991-current), Patriot Ledger, Gazette (Haverhill), Worcester Telegram & Gazette, Lowell Sun, North Adams Transcript, Plymouth County Bulletin, Sentinel and Enterprise (Fitchburg), Standard Times and more.