Using JSTOR Religion and Theology

After beginning a search and returning results, there are many options to refine those results and limit by certain parameters in the Refine Results menu. As limits are selected they will appear as blue boxes above the results list - select the "x" to remove a limit from your search:

Refine Results Menu

Search Within Results: A long results list can be overwhelming. To refine the results without starting an Advanced Search, use the "Search Within Results" text search box to add search terms (like a topical keyword or a proper name). This creates a more precise search of articles and book chapters, and a shorter results list. 

Academic Content: Use these checkboxes to select the type of resource to limit results to. JSTOR Religion and Theology offers academic content in the form of academic journal articles, book chapters, and research reports. 

Primary Source Content: Use these checkboxes to select a format of primary source content to limit search results to, in lieu of or in addition to articles and book chapters. JSTOR Religion and Theology provides access to digitized primary source material such as pamphlets, serials, and images/photos. This is a useful refinement for distance-learners when a paper or project requires the use of primary source material since these resources are immediately available, regardless of your geographic location.

Publication Date: Enter a date range to limit results to a specific time of publication. It is generally recommended for students to look for recent scholarship, usually within 10 years of the search year.

Subject: JSTOR uses subject headings to describe the topics covered by resources in the  database. Mark the checkbox(es) to limit your search results to those subject areas. Subjects are listed in alphabetical order and include a parenthetical with the number of results that fit that subject. 

 Access Type: The default access type is "Content I can access." Leave the selection as "Content I can access" to limit your results to just articles that are available in full-text for immediate use. Select "All content" to broaden your search results to include articles that only have the citation information available in JSTOR and the full text will need to be requested via interlibrary loan.

1. Select the hyperlinked article or chapter title to open it in the online reader. Options for downloading/saving, sharing, and citing the article are available from the online reader.

2. Select the "Download PDF" button to immediately download a PDF copy of the article to save and/or print.

3. Select the "Save" button to save a resource to your JSTOR Workspace or particular research folder. In order to use these features you must create and sign in to a free personal JSTOR account. If not signed in to a personal account (just accessing the database using Populi login information), the workspace will be temporary and any resources saved to it will expire in 2 days. Your personal Workspace can be accessed from the Save drop-down, or when signed in to your account by using the drop-down menu beneath your name in the upper right of JSTOR. 

4. Select the "Cite this Item" button to generate a citation for the article or chapter in one of the three major citation styles: MLA, APA, or Chicago. You can copy the citation and paste directly into a works cited. However, remember to check your citations for accuracy before including them in your work to avoid errors in your final product.

5. Mark checkbox(es) next to articles and chapters from the results list to use the "Export Selected Citations" feature to send items' citations to an external citation manager.

6. Descriptive metadata terms are hyperlinked in JSTOR records. Select any hyperlinked term to open a results list of articles  and chapters that share that attribute: the same author, same topic, etc. 

1. View the item's bibliographic information to the left of the online reader. Toggle between three view options to see either the bibliographic information, thumbnails of each page of the item, or the item's notes and references. 

2. Use the "Previous Item" and "Next Item" links to navigate to other items from your search results list.

3. A persistent link to the item is available to copy and paste for later use. This is a stable URL that will not change.

4. Select the "Cite this Item" button to generate a citation for the article or chapter in one of the three major citation styles: MLA, APA, or Chicago. You can copy the citation and paste directly into a works cited. However, remember to check your citations for accuracy before including them in your work to avoid errors in your final product.

5. The number of matches to your search terms within the article or chapter is noted in the upper right of the online reader. Click the hyperlinked number of matches to reveal a menu with in-text links to each time the term(s) appear. 

6. In the upper left find hyperlinks to the issue the article being viewed was published in, as well as to the journal's primary record, where you can view all available full-text articles. Academic journals frequently ascribe an overarching theme or focus to published issues, so accessing these additional, related articles can be an effective research strategy. 

7. Select the "Share" button to reveal a menu and share the article or chapter via Facebook, Twitter, or email.

8. Select the "Save" button to save a resource to your JSTOR Workspace or particular research folder. In order to use these features you must create and sign in to a free personal JSTOR account. If not signed in to a personal account (just accessing the database using Populi login information), the workspace will be temporary and any resources saved to it will expire in 2 days. Your personal Workspace can be accessed from the Save drop-down, or when signed in to your account by using the drop-down menu beneath your name in the upper right of JSTOR. 

9. Select the "Download PDF" button to immediately download a PDF copy of the article to save and/or print.