This is a guide to researching for an essay or dissertation in History.
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The databases listed below contain research in History (journal articles and book articles). Choose a database appropriate for your specific topic. Historical Abstracts is a good general database in this subject (though it excludes the United States and Canada).
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An index to journal articles, books and book chapters about British, Irish and Commonwealth history covering the period from 55 BC to the present.
Provides access to the Citation Indexes for: Science; Social Sciences; Arts & Humanities; Conference Proceedings and Books. Use for finding journal articles and conference papers. Databases can be searched simultaneously or select specific databases using the More Settings option.
Index to articles on medieval topics (300 - 1500 AD).
SocArXiv is a free open access archive for the social sciences. It holds working papers, preprints and published papers - some documents have links to data and code. (A pre-print is: "a manuscript draft that has not yet been subject to formal peer review, distributed to receive early feedback on research from peers").
Below you will find a selective list of online primary sources. Remember to also check the library catalogue for primary sources published as books.
Content from SCRAN is now available on trove.scot. Search for text and multimedia records from museums, galleries and archives relating to culture, history and science.
Information, images and media relating to Scotland's heritage. Brings together content previously available via Historic Environment Scotland's Historic Environment Portal, Canmore, Property in Care Collections and SCRAN.
Audio-visual materials
Images
Biographies
Biographical dictionary containing information about the lives of people who have shaped the history of Britain.
Newspapers
Searchable full text of The Times newspaper from 1785 to 2024. See also The Sunday Times archive
Official Publications
Statistics
Maps
Offers a range of historical Ordnance Survey mapping data products from 1843 to 1996. A range of online tools are available to facilitate viewing, interrogation and download of these products.
Early printed publications
Manuscripts
Specific people and topics
Digitised versions of Queen Victoria's journals. 141 volumes are included covering the period 1832 to 1901.
Digital archive of resources relating to the life of Nelson Mandela
Module 3 of AM's Colonial America collection, which covers the American Revolution. Includes original correspondence between the British government and the governments of the American colonies, making it a rich resource for historians of the period.
Access to digitised versions of over 1.5 million pages of historic and contemporary newspapers from Florida.
The world's largest archive of data related to the trans-Atlantic and intra-American slave trades. It holds records on the Atlantic slave trade and trafficking within the Americas.. Includes data on over 30,000 British, French, and Dutch ships that forced roughly 12 million Africans across the Atlantic between the 16th -19th centuries as well as data on hundreds of thousands of enslaved peoples that were trafficked within the Americas. Includes images, maps, ship routes, information on morality rates aboard the ships, the number of children transported, the names of ship captains, and information related to resistance and rebellions. Learn about the origins and forced relocations of more than 12 million African people. Explore where they were taken, the numerous rebellions that occurred, the loss of life during the voyages, the identities and nationalities of the perpetrators and more.
Covers the time period: 1514-1866
It is important to critically analyse information before you use it in an essay, report or assignment.