One of the things I do all the time is look for academic articles on particular subjects. Although I do have access to a university library, many times I can find what I'm looking for from my home computer. The ideal circumstance would be to have a single search engine that would link to an abstract page that would allow you to download for free or purchase. That's not here yet, but it is getting closer; the best general search engine I've found to date is Google Scholar, and it just keeps getting better.
The latest trend in accessing archaeological journals these days is for subscribers of those journals to gain electronic access to back content, as part of their membership costs, or a little more. The earliest innovator in archaeology journals that I'm aware of is Historical Archaeology, which started making its back issues available to subscribers in 2005. This spring, the Society for American Archaeology and the Archaeological Institute of America have both made their back issues available to subscribers.
Historical Archaeology
Because the SHA has been doing this the longest, the in-house capability for their content is the most robust. The SHA contents through 2000 are available on a cd for purchase; and if you join the association, you have access to all the back content, including all Historical Archaeology journal articles, Special Publications, Guides to Literature, Underwater Proceedings, and Parks Canada publications. The association website has a nifty "publications explorer" that allows you to search for articles. Some documents are free to download whether you are a member or not; some are for-pay, and some are member-only.
American Antiquity/Latin American Antiquity
The SAA publishes both American Antiquity and Latin American Antiquity, and under their new deal established just this year, any member who subscribes to one of these two journals may access the entire backlog of issues for both, with the exception of the past five years in a sliding window. What that means, is that you can get AmerAntiq and LAA from the beginning of time up to 2003, and next year it will be 2004. There is a $15 fee in addition to membership for this content, but quite frankly, that's nominal for what you get.
The SAA has set this up through JSTOR, which is, I believe, the oldest and definitely the largest online database for academic journal articles. It's unfortunate that you can't simply go to JSTOR and search for something; you must be a subscriber to a specific journal or set of journals to even search its voluminous sources. Alternatively, you can go to your local university library and search there.
The SAA website does have abstracts listed for the last several years, but the site is not searchable using the abstract content. So, if you aren't a subscriber, the best way to find an article in American Antiquity or Latin American Antiquity is to search using Google Scholar. The advanced scholar search lets you name your journal; any of the contents of JSTOR show up in the results as an abstract and contact page where you can purchase a copy. Anything more recent than 2004 will be listed but not accessible in this manner.
- Society for American Archaeology
- JSTOR
- Google Scholar (Advanced)
American Journal of Archaeology
As of February 2008, the American Journal of Archaeology, published by the Archaeological Institute of America, now publishes its backlog through Atypon, which is the same idea as JSTOR, and in fact most of the AJA content is already on JSTOR. Atypon also supplies storage capabilities for Blackwell Synergy and the American Anthropological Association, both of which have excellent search capabilities.
To search for articles published since 2003, use the AJAOnline feature, which works very well. Atypon has a search feature as well, which will give you abstract and title information. The best search engine, though, is through Google Scholar, again---it links to all the content that JSTOR as well as that on Atypon.
- Archaeological Institute of America
- AJA Online
- Atypon
- Atypon-Link search engine
There are other search engines that allow access to other journals, and I'll address that at a later date.
Comments
Hey Kris, love your site.
On open source, and an interesting study… I’m surprised you haven’t mentioned the PLoS ONE (open source) article on a proposed three-stage model for the peopling of the Americas: http://www.plosone.org/article/fetchArticle.action?articleURI=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0001596
Interesting stuff! Let’s hear your take.
Finally, Google Scholar is nice but you still often have to have a password to view many of the articles they reference. My recommendation: check out your local library! With my San Francisco Public Library card, I can access many of these articles online using the library’s subscription to services such as J-Stor. And I can search a wide range of journals using their cross-database search function. Best of all, at SFPL, ANY California resident can get a card, and even “visitors” can get a 3-month card for $10, with a temporary CA address. I’m sure it works similarly in other states, if someone isn’t nearby one of the bigger city’s libraries.
Use your library!
Thanks for your kind words! I hadn’t seen the PLOS-One article, so thanks for that; I’ll try to get a look at it in the very-near future. In the meantime, Kambiz over at Anthropology.net has discussed this paper:
Peopling of the Americas: Three Step Model for Colonizing the Americas