The MLA International Bibliography's Frequently Asked Questions page has quite a bit of information that can be used to identify periodicals. The document below, current as of August 2025, is a complete list of journal titles that have been indexed in MLA since 1926. Currently, MLA claims that they have indexed over 20,000 journal titles. Keep in mind that there are titles within this large number that have been absorbed by other publications over time, as well as titles that have gone out of print and may not have full text access in a database.
Nathan Larson is UMD's Publishing and Authorship Librarian, and is available for discussions about choosing which periodical to publish in. He has a particular interest in identifying predatory journals, and is an open access advocate.
If you have an individual MLA membership, you are still able to access the MLA Directory of Periodicals.
BrowZine is a neat tool that enables users to browse through scholarly journals and "subscribe" to them. This is not a full-text resource, but is useful for discovery, particularly when trying to keep up-to-date when new issues of a journal are published. The video below gives a great tutorial on how to use the service.
There are a few things to note about BrowZine. Firstly, this does not list every journal that UMD has access to. It partners with quite a few large databases that index journals, but not all of them. It also does not have article-level search capabilities. Secondly, the browsable journals are available only as far back as 2005. The company has stated that this is due to metadata reliability. UMD may still have access to the journals beyond this point, they just won't display in Browzine. Finally, not all of the articles may populate in a journal issue right away. Some journals grant pre-print access to articles, while other articles are behind embargoes. If an issue seems a little slim, it is always worth clicking into where it is hosted to see the full contents.
Ulrichsweb is an international periodicals directory that has been in publication since 1932. It acts as an authority record for journal titles and publication information. If a journal ever changed its name or was absorbed by another title, Ulrichs will have that information. It also continues to list periodicals that have gone out of print. While some journals do have a table of contents listed for each issue, this resource is not meant for article-level searching. Searching for a title may bring up multiple entries for the same journal. This is because Ulrich's differentiates by format; there will be unique records for print, online, microform, and more. Most importantly for this guide, clicking on a journal title will tell you if the journal is being indexed digitally and where it might be found. Cross referencing the MLA journal titles list, found above, with records in Ulrichs will be useful.
FOR EXAMPLE:
Searching for the journal title "Victorian Review" yields two results, as shown in the image. The third column shows an icon of a striped referee uniform. This is Ulrichs' way of indicating that the journal is peer-reviewed. The fourth column of the second result has a blue letter "e", indicating that this is an electronic journal. The Format column is different for each of the entries; one is Print, and the other is Online.
After clicking on the print version of "Victorian Review", a catalog record pops up. It gives a brief summary of the periodical. The important part is just below the navigation bar on the right side. In this screenshot, there are three links - "IngentaConnect", "Other", and "JCR Web". Only "Other" is useful here, as it links directly to the UMD Library's catalog. "Other" should show up on every page.
