Local History for Continuing Education: Journals

On this page you can find out about:

• Understanding journal citations/references (box on right)
• Using SOLO to find journal titles (online and in print) and to find specific journal articles
• Key journals for Local History

If you are interested in searching SOLO for articles on your topic, click on the tab Oxford's online resources.

You can use SOLO to find journal titles and articles.   Please see our top tips below or for more information see the SOLO Help guide 

• When searching for specific journals and articles it is helpful to understand the different parts of the journal citation (see the box opposite for more information).
• Use the Search Everything or the Oxford Collections search in SOLO to search for journal titles.
• Use the Articles search in SOLO to search for journal articles (see image below).
• Omit information such as volume, issue and page numbers from your SOLO search as SOLO will not always understand them.
• Results will include journals in both digital and physical format. You can limit your results to a specific format using the options under Sort & Filter Results.
• Use e-Journals A-Z to browse the complete list of online journal titles subscribed to by Oxford University.
• To find out about searching for articles by topic click on the tab  'Oxford's online resources'.

The Library has the following titles in print format relevant to Local History:

• Family and Community History 1999-
• History of Retailing and Consumption  2015-
• Landscape History  2011-
• Local History 1995-
• The Local Historian 1968-  [incomplete holdings] 
• Local Population Studies  1970-

These journals are all for use in the Library only. Current issues are displayed on the periodical stand in the Reading Room while back issues may be found downstairs in the Local History journals section.

Many other local history articles will be found in other journal titles. For more information, select the Oxford's Online Resources page.

A citation to a journal article will include several pieces of key information:

• Author(s) name
• Year of publication
• Article title
• Journal title (this is the name of the journal or publication in which the article appeared.  The journal title often includes the word 'journal' or 'review' (e.g. English Historical Review,  Journal of Ecology) or the word Quarterly or Transactions (e.g. Human Rights Quarterly; Philosophical Transactions).  Others give fewer clues (e.g.  Nature, History Today, The Guardian, Landscapes)
• Volume, issue  number and pages numbers 

e.g.  Meaden, G. Terence,  2017. Drombeg Stone Circle, Ireland, analyzed with respect to sunrises and lithic shadow-casting for the eight traditional agricultural festival dates and further validated by photography. Journal of Lithic Studies, 4(4), pp. 1-17

You can search SOLO by 

• author name and/or article title  
•  journal title
• See the box opposite for more information

Students on short courses can use SOLO to search for free, open access journal articles. When you have done a search for your topic, use the Show Only filter and select Open Access.

JSTOR offers a service called MyJSTOR, which allows you free online access to six articles per month from home. Anyone can register for a free account at https://www.jstor.org/register.

Further information on Open access resources is available from the Guide to current library services for students on short courses.