LibGuides: Black Studies Resources: Scholarly Journals

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Looking for Scholarly Journals?

The Mesa Library provides access to thousands of scholarly journals through its online article databases.

QUICK TIP: When running a search in an article database, you can limit your retrieval to scholarly journals available in full text by applying the "full text" and "scholarly journal" limits available in the search platform.

Here we highlight selected journal titles relevant to Black Studies research. But this is just a sampling. Also, because Black Studies is interdisciplinary, you might find that journals from other disciplines (e.g., art, education, political science, psychology, sociology, etc.) are valuable for your research as well.

Scholarly Journals

Sample Black Studies journals you can browse online:

African American Review
Publishes essays on African American literature, art, and culture. Contains interviews, fiction and poems. [Vendor description]
Black Music Research Journal
Includes articles about the philosophy, aesthetics, history, and criticism of black music. [Publisher description]
Black Scholar
The first journal of Black studies and research. In it academics, activists, artists and political leaders come to grips with basic issues confronting Afro-America, the diaspora, and Africa. [Publisher description]
Journal of African American Studies
Examines topics concerning social transformations that impact the life chances of continental Africans and the African diaspora. It publishes original research on issues of professional and disciplinary concern for the social progress of people of African descent. [Publisher description]
Journal of Black Studies
Leading source for dynamic, innovative, and creative research on the Black experience. Poised to remain at the forefront of the recent explosive growth in quality scholarship in the field of Black studies, JBS offers important and intellectually provocative articles exploring key issues facing African Americans. [Publisher description]
Western Journal of Black Studies
Leading interdisciplinary journal that is devoted to publishing scholarly articles, from a wide range of disciplines that focus mainly on the experience of African Americans in the United States. [Publisher description]
The Journal of African-American History
Articles, documents, and notes and comments on all aspects of negro history published by the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History Inc.[Publisher description]
The Journal of American History
Features a variety of pieces that deal with every aspect of American history, including state-of-the-field essays, broadly inclusive book reviews, and reviews of films, museum exhibitions, and Web sites.[Publisher description]
Black Scholar
Presents African-American essays on a broad range of issues of concern to scholars in sociology, history, literature, political science, health, art, women's studies, and ethnic studies.[Publisher description]
Journal of Negro Education
Washington: Howard University, School of Divinity.[Publisher description]
The Review of Black Political Economy
Journal covering the economic status of African-Americans and Third World peoples by identifying and analyzing policies designed to reduce racial economic inequality. [Publisher description]
The Review of Black Political Economy
Journal covering the economic status of African-Americans and Third World peoples by identifying and analyzing policies designed to reduce racial economic inequality.[Publisher description]
Journal of Africana Cultural Studies
Focuses on dimensions of African culture including literature, performance, art, music, the role of the media, & the relationship between culture & power.[Publisher description]
Journal of Modern African Studies
The Journal of Modern African Studies offers a quarterly survey of developments in modern African politics and society. Its main emphasis is on current issues in African politics, economies, societies, and international relations. [Publisher description]
Afro-Hispanic Review
Covers the culture of the African presence and influence in the Hispanic world.[Publisher description]

Assorted tutorials for more information about scholarly journals

Video tutorials:

Anatomy of a scholarly article -- How to Quickly Scan and Evaluate a Scholarly Article (Quinebaug Valley Community College)
Popular Magazines vs Scholarly Journals (University of Detroit)
Identify an Academic Journal (University of Cincinnati)
Parts of a Scholarly Journal Article Bowman Library, Menlo College)
How to Read an Academic Article (University of Guelph)

Black Studies Resources