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Using JSTOR Online Journals

JSTOR is a good source for older full text journals in fields such as anthropology, sociology, literature, ecology, and botany. The collection is not extensive but it features the core journals that college students need when working with "the literature." While JSTOR is one hundred percent full text, it works a bit differently than most full text indexes. This handout takes you step by step through basic JSTOR searching.

1. JSTOR is available via on and off campus via GALILEO.
2. Click on Search. JSTOR offers a Browse option as well, but that only works well when you know that a particular journal is especially useful.
3. JSTOR presents you with a single box that takes multiconcept topics and "bound phrases."
4. The most important part of searching on JSTOR occurs before you type anything in. Think about your topic carefully. Many topics are made up of two concepts. To search a two concept topic, put the two main ideas together with an AND between them. For example, genetics of corn is genetics AND corn.
   
   On the other hand, some topics form tight little phrases . If you can not change the order of the words in your topic without changing its meaning, your topic is a tight little phrase. Pod corn, a specific type of corn, is a tight little phrase. To search for pod corn on JSTOR, type it in as "pod corn." JSTOR lets you bind tight little phrases with "quotes."
5. JSTOR arranges results by relevance with the most relevant articles first. This usually puts the best articles on top. It displays references to articles in groups of twenty-five.
6. To see abstracts of your articles, click on the grey words Citation and Abstract or on Page of First Match if JSTOR does not offer an abstract. JSTOR presents each page of the article as a large .jpg image. If you want to read or browse through an entire article, click Print.
   
   This brings up the article in separate window as an Adobe Acrobat/PDF document. You can page through it and read it. You can also print all or part of it using the printer icon in the top bar of the Adobe Acrobat software (not the browser). WARNING: JSTOR brings up PDF articles that include "high quality images" very slowly.
7. To change your search, click the Modify Search link near the top of the page.
8. To search only in a given subject area, try Advanced Search. Click the burgundy text link that says Advanced Search.
9. JSTOR presents you with a multi-box that is a bit different than most. Below this box is a form listing various subjects. Check off the boxes next to the subject areas that interest you. For searching about corn genetics or pod corn, you might choose Botany, Anthropology, or Ecology. Although you can choose as many subject areas as you wish, you are better off with only one or two.
10. For searches with two concepts and an AND, place your search terms in the box marked All of These Terms. For a "tight little phrase" put your search phrase in the box marked The Exact Phrase. Click the grey search button to launch your search.
11. To start a new search, click on the burgundy Search link next to the red J.
12. To leave JSTOR, click the browser's home icon or Exit JSTOR near the top of the page.

EHK -- January 2005