Omni includes content from the various research databases to which QUL subscribes but not everything is included.
If you are looking for information on a very specific topic, or a topic that is subject specific, it is recommended that you search databases that specialize in that subject area for more thorough results.
Use an article index to find journal articles on your topic, as well as other related materials. Some will contain the full text of journals but if not, click
or the full text link if available
If the Get It link does not find anything, don't assume that the Library does not hold the item. A search in Omni for the title of the journal (or book) might find it.
If clicking on a full text link does not take you directly to the article, you will need to navigate a bit to get the article you want - depending on the resource provider.
Historical Abstracts
Indexes and abstracts journal articles, books and dissertations. Covers the history of the world from 1450 to the present (excluding the United States and Canada which can be found in the database, America: History and Life)
Academic Search Complete
Multi-disciplinary database of both scholarly and general interest articles.
Index Islamicus
Scholarly journal articles covering all aspects of Islam and the Muslim world including Africa.
Africa.Bib
The site consists of two bibliographic databases covering Africana periodical literature (Bibliography of Africana Periodical Literature Database) and African Women's literature (African Women's Database) plus more.
Africa Bibliography
Z3501 .B54 (Douglas Library Reading Room)
1984-2011
African e-Journals Project
To expand free, online access to journals published in Africa, the African e-Journals Project has digitized full text of articles of eleven social science and humanities journals.
African Journals Online
Online library of peer-reviewed, African-published scholarly journals.
African Studies Online Abstracts
African Studies Abstracts Online is the new electronic journal of the African Studies Centre in Leiden. Like its printed predecessor (African Studies Abstracts), African Studies Abstracts Online provides an overview of articles from periodicals and edited works on Africa in the field of the social sciences and the humanities available in the library of the African Studies Centre in Leiden. Discontinued in 2017.
Africana Periodical Literature
The Africana Periodical Literature database provides metadata of articles on Africa covering a wide range of topics, from geography, history and anthropology to agriculture, women's studies, medicine and health.
JSTOR
A multidisciplinary database of archived scholarly journals, which contain a great deal of historical material. However, JSTOR does not contain the most recent 3-5 years. If you only search JSTOR, you may be missing a lot.
Use the advanced search interface and some combination of the following techniques to increase the effectiveness of your searches:
|
Search Technique |
What It Does |
|
quotation marks |
Searches for exact phrase |
|
Truncation (usually an *) |
Searches for all forms of a word |
|
Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) |
Lets you broaden or narrow your search |
|
Database thesaurus or index |
Allows you to pinpoint the exact indexing terms the database uses |
Articles are important in your research as they contain the most-up-to-date research in a given field and often focus on a particular aspect of a topic.
But not all journal articles will be useful for your essay so you will need to evaluate before you use them.
Consult our guide, Distinguishing Scholarly from Non Scholarly Periodicals, to discover the difference between scholarly, trade and popular periodicals.
There are many scholarly journals which focus on this topic and which you will find indexed in the various databases.
Some titles include:
Africa (London, England : 1928)
Once you’re in Omni:
• Select "Journal Search" from the top menu
• Type in the name of the journal
• Press 
Both print journals and e-journals will appear in your search results if we have access to them. Check the extent of our print holdings and or the years covered online.