Written and maintained by CASRAI Editorial Board
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Yes, in the sense that libraries use the word. JSTOR is an online platform of scholarly journals, books and primary sources, and university libraries list it among the databases they license. JSTOR itself prefers to call it a platform for research and teaching, and the difference in wording is worth understanding before you decide how to cite it or where to search. All JSTOR facts below were checked on its own pages on 2026-10-29.
Is JSTOR a database? The short answer
JSTOR describes itself as “the platform where millions worldwide access scholarly content and tools for research and teaching.” A university library guide describes it as “a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources” and, on the same page, lists it among the library’s databases. Both descriptions are accurate. “Database” is the label a library uses for any licensed, searchable collection you reach through its website; “platform” is the publisher-side word for the service that hosts and delivers the content.
In practice that means you search JSTOR the way you search any library database: you enter keywords, narrow the results, open the item and cite it. Our guide to JSTOR journals describes the full-text journal archive in more detail.
What JSTOR is
JSTOR’s about page lists the kinds of material it hosts:
- scholarly journals and rare primary sources
- academic ebooks
- images, through Artstor
- a body of free journals, books, images and primary sources
- JSTOR Daily, a free magazine
JSTOR’s stated focus is the humanities, the arts and the social sciences. One point is easy to miss: JSTOR Daily is editorial writing about research, not the scholarly archive itself. Our JSTOR Daily guide explains what it is and how it differs from the journal collections.
Who runs JSTOR and what it covers
JSTOR is part of ITHAKA, which describes itself as a nonprofit with a mission to improve access to knowledge and education. ITHAKA also runs Ithaka S+R and Portico. According to JSTOR’s about page, the platform serves more than 14,000 institutions and works with more than 1,850 publishers, over 30 years of operation. Its JPASS access plan covers more than 2,000 academic journals.
JSTOR’s about page does not publish a single total for the number of items on the platform, so treat any total quoted elsewhere as unconfirmed. Coverage also differs by institution: a library licenses particular collections, so what you can open from one campus is not necessarily what you can open from another.
How to search JSTOR
These steps follow JSTOR’s own support article “Using JSTOR to Start Your Research.”
- Enter a keyword or phrase in the search box on jstor.org.
- Check the result count. If it is too large, add more terms to the search.
- Put quotation marks around words to search for an exact phrase.
- Use Boolean searching to combine or exclude terms.
- Open Advanced Search from the “Other ways to find content” options for field-by-field searching.
- Use “Narrow By: Item Type” and tick a box such as journals to limit the results to one kind of material.
- With a free personal account, use Save to keep a result in your workspace and Cite to export its bibliographic information.
The sign-in is on the JSTOR home page, and JSTOR’s help centre has a section for sign-in problems. If you are off campus, your library may ask you to log in through its own site first.
How to get access
JSTOR’s help centre says you can reach it through your institution or as an independent researcher. There are two routes in practice.
- Through an institution. If your library subscribes, you open JSTOR from the library’s list of databases and the library’s licence covers the collections it has bought.
- With a free personal account. JSTOR states that anyone with an email address may register, that registration is free, and that the address is verified by email. Registered users can read up to 10 articles every 30 days online, from participating publishers.
Strengths and limits
Strengths
- A single search across journals, books, primary sources and images in the humanities, arts and social sciences.
- A free personal account with Save and Cite tools.
- Free material alongside licensed content.
Limits
- Its stated focus is the humanities, arts and social sciences, so it is not a first stop for fields outside that focus.
- What you can read in full depends on your institution’s licence or, without one, the 10-articles-per-30-days allowance of a free account.
- JSTOR hosts articles; it does not decide whether they were peer reviewed. That is decided by the journal that published them, so check the journal’s own policy pages. Our guide on how to find peer-reviewed journals covers the verification steps.
Alternatives
If JSTOR does not have what you need, the options below are covered by CASRAI guides that cite each platform’s own pages.
| Option | What it is | Where to read more |
|---|---|---|
| Project MUSE | An aggregator of humanities and social science ebooks and ejournals from university presses and scholarly societies; produced by Johns Hopkins University Press with The Sheridan Libraries | Project MUSE guide |
| Library databases with a peer-review filter | Subject and multidisciplinary databases your library licenses, many of which offer a peer-reviewed limiter | How to find peer-reviewed journals |
FAQ
Is JSTOR a database or a digital library?
Both labels are used. JSTOR calls itself a platform, library guides call it a digital library, and libraries list it among their databases.
Is JSTOR free?
Partly. JSTOR hosts free journals, books, images and primary sources, and a free personal account lets you read up to 10 articles every 30 days from participating publishers. Wider access comes through an institution.
Who owns JSTOR?
JSTOR is part of ITHAKA, a nonprofit.
Where do I log in?
Use the sign-in on the JSTOR home page, or open JSTOR from your library’s database list.
Does JSTOR only contain peer-reviewed articles?
JSTOR does not make that call. Peer review is determined by each journal, so check the journal’s own policy.
Sources
- JSTOR, About JSTOR, about.jstor.org (checked 2026-10-29)
- JSTOR Support, Using JSTOR to Start Your Research (checked 2026-10-29)
- JSTOR Support, How to Register and Get Free Access to Content (checked 2026-10-29)
- JSTOR Support, Help centre (checked 2026-10-29)
- University of Colorado Boulder Libraries, JSTOR (checked 2026-10-29)
