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How To Use JSTOR®

To search the complete text of scholarly journals


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JSTOR Arts & Sciences I, II & III Collection® is an indexed archive containing the fulltext of scholarly journals, beginning with the very first issue of each title. There is a gap, called a moving wall, of typically 1 to 5 years between the most recently published journal issue and the content available in JSTOR®. For some titles, JSTOR® includes the citation information for articles that fall in that gap. For these titles, direct links to the fulltext of articles in other UW-W online resources may be provided. fulltext articles in recent issues of some titles are not available in the JSTOR®  archive. Some of these titles are available through Project Muse®, and JSTOR®  graciously provides links to the articles.

Citations, abstracts and fulltext of journal contents may be searched with keywords. It is also possible to browse the collection one issue at a time to find a citation or article.  Articles, reviews and other items, in digitally reproduced PDF image files, may be displayed a page at a time and printed with Adobe Acrobat Reader® software.

JSTOR® UW-W users only is accessible both on and off-campus by UW-Whitewater students, faculty and staff .

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Logging On/Off

To log on, begin on any University Library webpage, select Articles from the Find Menu, click on J under Indexes & Databases in Alphabetical Order, and then on the JSTOR collection link.

To exit, click on the EXIT JSTOR link at the top of the screen.

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Searching

To perform a search, click on the Search Hotspot link on the JSTOR® home page, or on Search Button or  SEARCH on any display in JSTOR®.

Search Techniques

Common Techniques
To Retrieve Records With: Search For:
words with the same root, truncate with * sail* finds sail, sails, sailing, sailed, etc.
more than one word, adjacent or not, use and endangered and species
synonyms or other related words, use or england or britain or "united kingdom"
keywords, in the same field, occurring within 10 words (a typical sentence) or 25 words (paragraph) of each other, use near (n words) endangered near (10 words) species
a phrase, use quotation marks "endangered species act"
multiple words, including synonyms or other related terms, use parentheses crim* and violen* and (juvenile* or teen*)
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Basic Search

The Basic Search is the default search option. To get to here from the Advanced Search, click on the Basic Search link. NOTE: If you have been using the Advanced Search , terms entered and preferences selected there will not necessarily transfer to the Basic Search.

  1. Type words or phrases in the textbox using the above techniques, or others found on the JSTOR help screens.
  2. Click on the Search button.
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Advanced Search

If on the Basic Search form, click on the Advanced Search link to get here.

  1. Texboxes (required) - Type in words or phrases. Click on the down arrow of the succeeding menu and select whether to search the full-text, author, article title, abstract or caption field. Select a Boolean connector AND, OR or NOT between textboxes.
    NOTE: If combining two or more textboxes, selecting different connectors between them will not yield the desired results. Instead use the Basic Search form.
  2. Limit by (optional) - Most users find appropriate search results quicker when they limit the scope of a search using some of these options.
    • Type (optional) - Check the box preceding one or more of the following: Article, Review, Editorial, Other(such as announcements, bibliographies, or other non-research related items). If no option is selected, all types will be searched.
    • Date Range (optional) - Type a range of dates in the textboxes. If a date is entered in the first box, but the second is left blank, the search will be done from the first date to the most current issue. If only one date is desired, type it in both boxes, for example 2008 to 2008.
    • Article Language - Select an option from the menu.
    • Discipline(s) and/or Journal(s)- Either select subject groups of journals by marking the checkbox preceding each one, or click on the [+] button to see the list journal titles in that group and them marking the desired titles individually.
  • Click on Search button to perform the current search.
  • To perform another search, either click on or type new terms in the textbox at the top of the display. Terms entered and preferences selected on the Advanced Search form may transfer to the Basic Search form.
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Displaying Search Results

Search Results List

The Search Results display identifies the number of items retrieved and lists them in batches of 25.

To view more items at one time, select a different number from the Show results per page menu and click on the Display button.

To go to another page of results, click on Previous Arrow Previous, Next Next Arrow at the bottom of the display, or type a number in the Go to page textbox and click on .

Items appear in order of relevance, meaning that articles the database considers more important based on search term location and frequency are at the top of the list. Articles may be resorted chronologically by selecting Most Recent to Oldest from the Sort by.

To revise the current query, click on or type it directly in the textbox at the top of the display and click on .

To return to the Search Results when viewing a citation, abstract or fulltext of an article, click on the SEARCH RESULTS link.

Article Citations

An Article Citation display lists an article's citation, including title, author(s), journal title, volume, issue, date and pages of an item, followed by a stable URL for use in bibliographies and reference lists. About 10% of JSTOR articles also have an abstract written by the author.

To view the citation from:

  • The Search Results display, click on the Article Information link at the bottom of the record.
  • The fulltext of an Article, click on the ARTICLE INFORMATION link.

Display Articles

To display the PDF fulltext of an article in JSTOR from the Search Results or Article Information page, click on the article's title or on VIEW ARTICLE.

JSTOR includes citations and links to fulltext articles in some other databases, such as Project Muse®. To display one of these articles, click on Link to Article at the bottom of the record, then on . Project Muse® will open to the article text.

To display the first page of an article containing any of the search terms, click on Page of First Match beneath the article's citation on the Search Results display. If the first match occurs in the article citation, click on the First Match is in the Citation link.

When viewing an article, to display a page containing any of the search terms, click on a page number following At least one of your search term(s) appear on one or more of the following pages at the top of the display.

To display another page of an article, click on Previous Arrow Previous Page, Next Page Next Arrow or Select Another Page.

To display an adjoining article in the same journal issue, click on Previous Item in Journal or Next Item in Journal.

To see other articles from the same journal, click on TABLE OF CONTENTS, and then on an article's title.

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Browsing

  1. To browse journals to find articles, click on the Browse Hotspot link on the JSTOR home page, or on Browse Button or BROWSE on any display in JSTOR.
  2. The Browse by Discipline display appears. Click on a subject area, or scroll down to view an alphabetical list of disciplines with the associated journals below each in alphabetical order by title.

    To browse journals alphabetically instead of by discipline, click on ALPHABETICAL LIST OF JOURNALS.

    To return to the Browse by Discipline display, click on DISCIPLINE LIST OF JOURNALS at the top or bottom of a display.

  3. Click on the title of a journal.
  4. Under Volumes Available for Browsing, links to the journal's available contents are listed in chronological order. Click one or more links to narrow down to a specific volume if necessary.

    If a title change for the journal has occurred, there will be links to the titles of the preceding or succeeding titles held by JSTOR®.

    To view the Table of Contents for a volume without issues, click on the volume number.

    To return to Volumes Available for Browsing, click on the VOLUMES link.

  5. If the journal being browsed has issue numbers as well as volume numbers, click on the link to a specific issue on the Issues Available for Browsing display.

    To view the Table of Contents for an issue, click on the issue number.

    To return to Issues Available for Browsing, click on the ISSUES link.

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Displaying Browse Results

Table of Contents

The Table of Contents display lists the items published in an issue (or volume if issue numbers are not used) of a journal in page number order.

To view the next or previous issue's Table of Contents, click on the volume/issue information following Next Issue or Previous Issue.

To view a list of issues for the current journal, click on ISSUES.

To browse issues from another journal, click on TITLES.

To return to the Table of Contents when viewing a citation, abstract or fulltext of an article, click on TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Citations

An Article Citation display includes the article's citation (article title, author(s), journal title, volume, issue, date, pages, etc.), followed by a stable (permanent) URL for use in bibliographies and reference lists.  This is followed by an abstract for about 10% of the articles.

To view the citation from the Table of Contents or fulltext of an article, click on Article Information.

Articles (browsed)

To display the PDF fulltext of an article from:

To display the fulltext of an article in another database, such as Project Muse®, click on Link to Article at the bottom of the record, then on . Project Muse® opens the article text.

To display another page of an article, click on Previous Arrow Previous Page, Next Page Next Arrow or Select Another Page.

To display an adjoining article in the same journal issue, click on Previous Item in Journal or Next Item in Journal.

To select another article from the same journal, go to the table of contents by clicking on TABLE OF CONTENTS, then click on an article's title.

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Printing

Articles

  1. Click on Print on the Search Results or Table of Contents display
  2. Click on Proceed with Printing. The PDF will open in a new window.
  3. After it has appeared, click the Adobe Acrobat print icon Adobe Print icon, and then on .

Other

JSTOR® makes no special provisions for printing search results, volumes or issues list, displayed citation/abstract or table of contents. Therefore, use the browser's print options:

  1. Click anywhere within the desired text.
  2. Click on the browser's Print button or click on File, then Print...
  3. Click on the Print (I.E.®) or OK (Netscape®) button.
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Saving

Save Articles

Click on Download on the Search Results or Table of Contents display. Then:

Windows Users:

  1. Right-click on the Economy or High Quality link.
  2. Click on Save Link As... (Netscape) or Save Target As... (I.E.) in the pop-up menu.
  3. Save the article on a floppy disk by adding A: in front of the file name. For example, a:myfile.pdf
  4. Click on .

Mac Users:

  1. Click and hold the mouse button on the Economy or High Quality link.
  2. Choose Save Link As... (Netscape) or Download Link to Disk (I.E.) in the pop-up menu.
  3. Choose to save the file as Source, not Text.
  4. Save the article to a floppy disk by adding A: in front of the file name. For example, a:myfile.pdf
  5. Click on .

Save Other

JSTOR® makes no special provisions for saving a search results, volumes or issues list, displayed citation/abstract or table of contents. Therefore, use the browser's save options:

  1. Click anywhere within the desired text.
  2. Click on File, then Save As...
  3. Save the information to a floppy disk by adding A: in front of the file name. For example, a:myfile.htm
  4. Click on .
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Open JSTOR

Click to Open JSTOR Arts & Sciences I, II & III Collection

JSTOR Help

Context-sensitive help is provided throughout the JSTOR® database. Click on Tips button at the top or TIPS at the bottom of the display for context-sensitive assistance.

For additional assistance, contact a reference librarian at (262) 472-1032, by email or chat or in person at the Library's Reference Desk.

Last Revised: MS - 10/18/2007