JSTOR is a (largely) fulltext multidisciplinary database, originally designed to make the content of academic journals (Journal Storage) easily accessible to universities, but since then supplemented with books and primary sources.

JSTOR employs a 'moving wall': which means that there is a fixed period or gap between the publication of the journal and its release for this database. Often this is between 3 and 5 years, but it can range from 0 tot 10 years.

Access

This database is accessible within the Ghent University network only. The University has access to the following collections within the database:

• Arts & Sciences: I, II, III, V , VII, VIII
• Business Collection
• Biological Sciences

Search Tips

When entering your search term in the central search bar, you can refine by 'images'. Using 'Browse' at the top of the page, you can also simply browse within a subject area, publication title, publisher, collection or images.

The Advanced search allows you to specify in which fields the search term should appear, e.g. search in title and abstract.

Important to know: only about 10% of all the articles in the database include an abstract.  

Note: TB = title of book (will be added automatically if you search for TI (title)).

There is no autofill keyword tool in this database.

• * is used for 0 or more characters searching
• ? replaces 1 character
• For authors names (full name), titles and exact phrases: best to put in quotation marks "first name last name" or the search engine will look for the words separately as well

Export 

Using the button 'Cite' you can generate copy/paste citations in MLA, APA or Chicago or export the bibliographic data for EndNote, Zotero, etc. ('Export a RIS file').
For Zotero you can also use the browser plugin, and make a selection (if the plugin is used in the results list). Even the PDF is (if available) stored in your Zotero library. 

Access

Make sure you are connected to the UGent network via Athena (open a browser via Athena). Search for the database in the Ghent University library catalogue lib.ugent.be. Click on the link 'view online' and you have access to JSTOR.

Alerts & saving searches

No alerts available.

You can save your search results in a temporary 'workspace' which expires after 2 days. For long-term storage of your searches, you have to create an account and login (free).

Tips

• If no fulltext is available, you can use the Fulltext@UGent button to find out how to obtain the fulltext article.
• If you register, you can read up to 6 paying articles per month for free. You can also save and organize sources and notes in your 'personal workspace'.
• Use Text Analyzer, which you can find under the 'Tools' tab on the homepage, to perform a text analysis on a document. To do this, drag your document into the designated box. The tool analyzes the text to find 'Topics' that link to similar content in JSTOR. You can adjust the results list by (de)selecting the 'Topics' you want to prioritize.

More information

The Library of the University of Amsterdam created a number of short demos.