Locating Book Reviews - Pace University Library

Locating Book Reviews Online

Questions to ask yourself before you begin:

• When was the book published? You do not want to look in an index that covers the years 1985-present if your book was published in 1980. Check for the original publication date of the book, you may have a reprint or second edition.
• What is the subject of the book? Should you be using a specialized index or database?

NOTE: If the publication source of a review (journal, magazine, newspaper) is not immediately available in full-text, use the service to determine if full-text might be available in another Pace Library electronic resource, or if the publication is available in print or on microfilm in the Library. If the publication is not available from any Pace Library location, use Interlibrary Loan to place a request, and we will get a copy for you from another Library outside of Pace that does subscribe to the needed publication.

General Sources

General Databases & Web Sites

All databases listed are also available from the Library home page. To access, click on Databases, and then choose a database from the list provided. Remote Access is available 24/7; requires a Pace email or Portal username/password.

Academic Search Premier (1965-present)
Search “Default Fields” for the author's name and/or words from the title, and select "Book Review" as your Document Type in the Refine Search area.

Lexis Nexis Universe (1970-present)
Search in the NEWS files by author/title. Add the words "book review" or "review" for better results.

Research Library (1986-present)
In the Advanced Search section, search for title or author in Citation and abstract, and "book review” as Document Type.

New York Times Archive (1851-1995)
In “Advanced Search,” search by keyword, or select "review" as your Document Type.

New York Times (1980-present)
From the Lexis-Nexis Universe Database; default will be set to the NY Times if you use the link in the database listing. Search for author or title.

JSTOR (Coverage varies by title, mostly BACK issues, not the current 3 – 5 years)
Contains back issues of scholarly journals. In “Advanced Search,” search for title or author, and select “Review” in the “These Types:” options.

Web Sites for Book Reviews

Be careful about using web sites that ask you to pay for the full text. Copy down the citation and see if you can obtain it full text in one of the Library's subscription databases, or using Interlibrary Loan. You should never need to pay for full text!

H-NET Reviews in the Humanities and Social Sciences
http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/ (1993 - present)
Maintained by Michigan State University, this site provides book reviews of academic books. Reviews are written by members of the academic community.

New York Review of Books
http://www.nybooks.com/nyrev/archives.html (1963* - present)
Use the online form to search for a particular book review appearing in this journal. Contains mainly book reviews of literature and history. *Selected full text reviews available from the web site.

New York Times Book Review
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/books/index.html (1981-present)
Free registration is required to access the New York Times web site. Full text of all reviews published since 1981 in the Daily and Sunday book reviews are included.

Databases by Discipline

Arts and Humanities

Art Abstracts (1984 – present)
Search title or author, and then select “Review Article” from the list of Document Types.

MLA (Modern Language Association) (1963-present)
In “Keyword(s)” search for author or title and the phrase “book review.”

Business

ABI-Inform (1970-present)
In the Advanced Search mode, change Article Type to "book review" and search for author's name or book title.

Business Source Premier (1965 - present)
Search by author or title and include the word "book" in one of the search boxes.

Computer Science & Technology

ACM Digital Library (1985-present.)
Type "book review" in keyword along with author or title words.

IEEE Computer Society Digital Library (1995-present)
Type "book reviews" in keyword and add the author name or title words.

Education

Education Abstracts (1983-present)
Search for author’s name or book title, then in the Refine Search area select “book review” from the Document Type menu.

ERIC (1966-present)
Use "book review" in default fields and author or title.

History

America: History & Life (1964-present)
Select "book reviews" on the search screen. Covers the United States and Canada.

Historical Abstracts (1450-present)
Select "book reviews" on the search screen. Covers the world except for the US and Canada.

Law

LegalTrac (1980-present)
Conduct a keyword search on "book reviews" with the author's name of title of book.

Lexis-Nexis Universe (1980-present)
In the "Legal News" area, keyword search "book review" with the author and words from the title.

Nursing and Health

Health Reference Center Academic (1994-present)
Conduct a keyword search on book reviews or subject search the author's name.

Health Source: Nursing/Academic (1975 – present)
Search for book title or author name in first text box, then in second text box, type “book review” and limit search to SU Subject Terms.

Sciences

American Chemical Society (ACS) Journals (Last 5 years, updated monthly)
In the Full-Text Search area, search “Anywhere in Article” for the phrase “book review,” and “Anywhere in Article” for author or title of book.

Social Sciences

EconLit (1969-present)
Keyword "book review" and the author's last name or words from the title. Book reviews are full text.

PsycINFO (1887-present)
Search for title or author name, then search for “review” in PZ Document Type.

Sociological Abstracts (1963-present)
Sociology, social work, and other social sciences. Keyword "book review".