Book Reviews - Humanities & Social Sciences

Book reviews are published in popular newspapers and magazines (i.e., Globe and Mail, Macleans), scholarly journals (i.e., British Journal for the History of Science) and dedicated book review publications (i.e., Times Literary Supplement). They can be short blurbs or scholarly essays. This site contains information and links to indexes and databases that contain book reviews, as well as instuctions on using them. Below is a list of general indexes that are good for finding book reviews in most subjects. See the menu on the right-hand side of this page for a listing of guides and databases in specific subjects.

Highly Recommended Indexes

Book Review Index Online
1965-
Searchable by book title, book author or, using the Advanced Search option, a combination of many fields including type of review and review author.

Book Review Digest Plus
1983-
Offers reviews from over 8,000 periodicals from 1983 onwards. Updated daily, you can search by book author, book title and by subject keywords. You can also search Book Review Digest Plus separately or concurrently with Book Review Digest Retrospective to find reviews from 1905 to the present. To connect to Book Review Digest Retrospective within Book Review Digest Plus, click on the "Open Database Selection Area" link on the search page and select Book Review Digest Retro from the list of available databases.

Scholars Portal Search
Dates vary; majority of journals indexed from early 1970s onwards
This unique interdisciplinary search engine covering the arts and humanities, social sciences, natural and health sciences, and technology also provides access to book reviews. To find reviews, enter title, author or subject information. Remember to select a subject search area.

Web of Science
Social Sciences Citation Index, 1956- | Arts & Humanities Citation Index, 1975-
To find book reviews, select Web of Science, then General Search. In the first box type the title or author of the book. In the second search box, use the drop down menu to select select 'Document type' and then a drop down menu will appear in the search box. Scroll down this menu and select "Book Review".

Humanities Abstracts
1983-
On the Advanced Search page enter keywords from the author's name as one search line followed by the book's title as another search line. Make sure they are connected with the default "And" operator. Type "review" in a third search line and select "Publication Type, PT=" from the drop down menu for that line.
Please Note: To search Humanities Abstracts concurrently with Social Science Abstracts, click on the "specific databases" link located beside the "Change" heading in the middle of either the Basic or Advanced Search screens. A list of searchable and combinable databases will appear. Check the box beside "Social Science Abstracts" and then click on "Continue to Search" at the bottom of the page.

Social Science Abstracts
1984-
On the Advanced Search page enter keywords from the author's name as one search line followed by the book's title as another search line. Make sure they are connected with the default "And" operator. Type "review" in a third search line and select "Publication Type, PT=" from the drop down menu for that line.
Please Note: To search Social Science Abstracts concurrently with Humanities Abstracts, click on the "change" icon beside "Social Science Abstracts" and from the next screen select "Humanities Abstracts" and then click on "Start Searching".

ProQuest
Dates vary; majority of journals indexed from mid to late 1980s or 1990s onwards
In Advanced Search enter author, title or reviewer keywords in 'Citation and abstract' search box. Select the 'More Search Options' link at bottom left of screen, scroll down to 'Document Type', scroll down again to 'Review' and select the desired review type.

Expanded Academic ASAP
1980-
In the Basic Search enter the keywords from the book's title and/or author's name. Click on Search. On the results page there is a list of document types, if you click on Book Reviews it will display only those types of articles for you.

IBR: International Bibliography of Book Reviews (IBR)
1985-
Select either New Search or Browse. Select from a list of retrieval options, such as Title Words, Personal Name, Reviewer, etc. IBR is updated monthly.

Other Indexes

Periodicals Index Online
Selective coverage from 1665-
Periodicals Index Online is an electronic index to millions of articles published in over 4,500 periodicals over 300 years in the humanities and social sciences. To find book reviews, select Article Search and then limit to book reviews using the check boxes on the right of the screen. Use author and keywords to find reviews. You may also limit by language and by year of publication.

Periodicals Archive Online
1660s-1930s
A companion to Periodicals Index Online, Periodicals Archive Online is a major online periodical archive that makes the backfiles of periodicals in the humanities and social sciences available electronically, providing access to the full text of a growing number of digitized periodicals that have been indexed in its sister database, Periodicals Index Online. To find book reviews, select Article Search and then limit to book reviews using the check boxes on the right of the screen. Use author and keywords to find reviews. You may also limit by language and by year of publication.

JSTOR
1665-
A full-text, multidisciplinary and discipline-specific scholarly journal archive consisting of back issues of hundreds of journals (List of journals by discipline and years covered). To locate book reviews select Advanced Search from the link beside the basic search screen. Enter author, title or review author keywords and refine your search by checking the "Review" box just under "Limit by".

Project MUSE
1994-
Project MUSE provides access to the full text of over 200 journals in literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, economics, and others. To find book reviews, choose Advanced Search and use the pulldown menu under "Limit Search" and "By Type" to select "Review".

Readers' Guide Abstracts
1983-
On the Advanced Search page enter the book's title or title keywords as one search line. Type "review" in the second search line and select "Publication Type, PT=" from the drop down menu for that line. Make sure that the two search lines are connected by the default "And" operator.

Book Review Index to Social Science Periodicals

Source-Specific Indexes

New York Times
1851-2001
Provides full text book reviews. To find book reviews, enter author's name or title of book and limit by date. Additionally, select "More Search Options" link just below search box, and select "Review" from the Document Type menu.

New York Times Book Review
1997-

Times Literary Supplement Centenary Archive
1902-
A rich database of more than 250,000 TLS reviews from 1902 onwards. Note that reviews were published anonymously in the TLS until 1974.