Sport in American History: Secondary Sources: Journal Articles & Books

Your secondary sources will probably take the form of scholarly journal articles. Journal articles are pieces of scholarly writing published in academic journals. Academic journals are publications that present research and scholarship about specific academic disciplines. Journal articles can vary in length, but are often about the same length as a chapter in a scholarly nonfiction book. Scholarly journal articles are peer-reviewed, make an argument, and cite their sources. Journal articles are especially helpful for finding information about a narrow topic; reading a scholar’s arguments; getting an overview of several scholars’ arguments about a topic; and finding more resources on a topic. 

The best database for journal articles is JSTOR -- this is a database of only journal articles. Many of our other databases, including Academic OneFile, Academic Search Complete, also include journal articles with their other content. Look for the keywords "Academic Journals", "Peer-Reviewed Articles", or "Scholarly Articles". 

The journals below may be helpful as you pursue your topic. They are not available either as full text or indexed abstracts in the Nobles databases, but we are able to request articles from the Boston Public Library. Please try to build in some extra time for these requests, as turn-around times may be impacted by the pandemic. You can look at article titles by clicking into the issue links. 

Single-topic nonfiction books (called monographs) are especially helpful for reading a detailed account of events, learning about an event in historical context, finding both general and specific information about an event or person, reading a scholar’s arguments, and finding primary sources. 

The books (monographs) you use:

• Should be written or edited by a scholar or expert (it's good to read about the author's credentials and/or potential biases).
• Should be written about one specific aspect of a time period or event. Monographs are not reference books.
• Should include both factual information and an author's argument. (Remember: reference books do not include arguments.)
• Should include a source list and/or source notes (good places to look for possible primary sources or further reading), and might include excerpts from primary sources.
• Does NOT have to be read cover-to-cover!
  • Sometimes only a chapter or a few sections of a book are relevant.
  • We highly recommend reading the introduction and the conclusion to find out what the author's argument is.
  • Always check the source list and/or source notes for the reasons listed above.

You can access the Putnam Library Catalog here. 

Here is a video that shows you how to search the Putnam Library catalog. Make the video full screen to see it better.

If you need help searching, check out the search tips below the video or on our "Research Tips" page.

• Use keywords to search.
• It is better to use broader search terms and then narrow them down.
• Spelling is important!
• Click on a record for a summary or to see the table of contents.
• The location on the shelf is listed on the results page.
• You can narrow by collection (Reference, Non-Fiction) or type (Books, Videos), which can be helpful.
• If you are looking for a book or article and can't seem to find it among our resources, check out the box on this page called "Interlibrary Loan" for information about borrowing resources from other libraries.

On Campus: 

• You should be able to click through links as you would a free website. If you are prompted for a log-in, please see a librarian.

Off Campus: 

• You will have to log in using your Nobles ID and password.

Important Notes:

• If you open a database tab in one place (i.e., at school or home) and leave it open, it will not work when you reopen it in another place (i.e., at home or at school). This is because your use of the library databases depends on the network to which your computer is attached. 

• DO NOT copy the URL at the top of your screen to include in your citations. It will not work.

Always make sure you get the stable link and citation information for your articles before you try to change wireless networks. Look for something that says "Citations", "Citing", or "Cite this article", and then copy and paste the link or citation that they give you. Make sure that you are using the Turabian (Chicago) style of citation!

EBSCO Discovery Service allows you to search all of our databases at one time. It is a great tool, but is very powerful and will likely return many results, and so may be overwhelming. We recommend waiting to use it until you are familiar with your topic and you have an idea what you need to search for. To use it to find journal articles, use the filters on the left side of the page to limit your results to "Academic Journals".