English & Literature

Featured Journals

Language, Literature, and Creative Writing

• College Literature (the most recent coverage is available through Project MUSE). The platform description of this journal states that: "College Literature is dedicated to publishing innovative scholarly research across the range of periods, intellectual fields, and geographical locations that comprise the changing discipline of Anglophone and comparative literary studies." 
• Critical Survey. This journal's platform description states that it: "[a]ddresses central issues of critical practice & literary theory in language that is clear, concise, & accessible. Combines criticism with reviews & poetry, providing an essential resource for everyone involved in the field of literary studies."
• Papers on Language & Literature. According to the platform description, this journal features: "[a]rticles, notes and book reviews on literary history, theory and interpretation and original material such as letters, journals and notebooks aimed at scholars and critics of language and literature."
• Pennsylvania Literary Journal. EBSCO describes this as follows: "A peer-reviewed journal that publishes critical essays, book-reviews, short stories, interviews, photographs, art, and poetry."
• The Review of English Studies describes an emphasis on "historical scholarship rather than interpretive criticism, though fresh evaluation of writers and their work are also offered in the light of newly discovered or existing material."
• Seventeenth Century News, per the hosting platform, '[c]overs all aspects of seventeenth-century culture, English, American, and European, with emphasis on literature and history."

Databases: 

Databases present collections of content. Many of the library's databases in English Studies include the full-text of articles from journals, but others have different concentrations. It is worth paying very close attention to the description of the database contents in order to select the "best" database for your project.

• What is the focus? (Literary criticism, poetry, teaching and learning, primary sources, biography, and so on)
• Does it feature the full text of the articles?
• Does it primarily feature books, articles, or something else?
• Is it a presentation of scholarship or of digitized primary sources or other historical items?
• Does it primarily emphasize citations for works that at times may only be accessible through another database or point of access? (looking at you, MLA International Bibliography!) 

Noting this information can help you to ensure you choose a database most likely to be relevant to your needs. 

Journals (and Articles): 

Journals typically feature collections of writings. They are publications (online and/or in print) that most likely focus on some particular shared area of study.

• Many journals feature articles that are roughly about the length of a book chapter.
  • Often, the term "peer reviewed article" may be understood to refer to a journal article. This means the article's review and editorial progress prior to journal publication is understood to follow a certain degree of rigor, editing, and fact checking. 
• Some journals in English and Literature may instead feature standalone creative works, such as poetry or short stories. 
• Many journals also feature book or media reviews, in which you can see both a summary and a critique.
• Journals may at times have the most "current" scholarly perspective on emerging topics as they may be published with relative frequency (e.g. monthly or quarterly).
• While some journals publish exclusively under Open Access agreements, others will have limited numbers of articles available in Open Access. This means that subscription access (through an organizational membership or through a library) is often required. 

Many databases search for and retrieve information from across many different journals. Sometimes, though, you may wish to focus on works only from a specific journal (or you may wish to submit work to a specific journal).