Contents & Search Tips
Humanities Abstracts

Indexing and abstracting of articles from English-language journals covering archaeology, area studies, art, classical studies, communications, dance, film, folklore, gender studies, history, journalism, linguistics, literary and social criticism, literature, music, performing arts, philosophy, religion, and theology. Coverage from 1984 to the present.

 TRUNCATION AND WILDCARDS

 
*

Use * for variant endings of a word, eg. color* retrieves color, coloring, colored, colorado, etc.

 

?

Use ? to stand in for each unknown character when you are unsure of spelling, eg. einst??n retrieves the correctly spelled term, einstein.

 
BOOLEAN OPERATORS

Boolean operators can only be used from the Basic Search screen. Be sure to click the radio button indicating you would like to conduct a Boolean search. Humanities Abstracts supports a much broader range of Boolean operators than most databases. Click on 'Help' and then 'Boolean operators' for a complete list. Below are selected standard and most useful operators:

 

 

AND

where both terms are present
 

OR

where either term is present
 

NOT

excludes the second term
 

NEAR/N

finds both terms within a specified number of words, eg. Manitoba <near/10> tourism finds articles with both terms within 10 words of each other

CONTAINS

finds term or phrase within a specific field, eg. TI <contains> star gazing finds articles that include the phrase star gazing anywhere in the title

LIMITS
Humanities Abstracts allows you to limit search results from the Advanced Search screen by using radio buttons or drop down menus.
 

Date

The default will search all records, or you can limit to the past year, or a selected range
 

Peer reviewed

Limit to articles in peer-reviewed journals
 Document typeUsing the drop down menu, limit to article type, eg. as book reviews, biographies, interviews, features, obituaries, etc.
 

Physical description

Using the drop down menu, limit to articles that include specific physical characteristics, eg. bibliographies, illustrations, or tables
SPECIAL FEATURES
 All-Smart Search Using a proprietary Wilson algorithm, the All-Smart field search finds your search term in all fields and the text of the abstract, and then ranks the results according to relevancy.
 WilsonLinkWhen you're inside a record, clicking on the WilsonLink icon generates links to the full text of articles in other Sarah Lawrence databases.
 BrowseSearching a keyword in the Browse screen generates an alphabetical list of appropriate search terms, as well as an indication of the number of articles indexed using that term. This is a quick way to determine coverage of your topic in the database.
 ThesaurusSearching subject terms in the Thesaurus screen generates the subject hierarchy, allowing you to see the broader, narrower, and related terms to use in your searching.
 Search History The database stores searches through each session here. Use the radio buttons to combine previous searches to produce a narrower, more precise search.