Recommended Databases for Finding Articles
PERIODICAL INDEXES
Note: The Articles & Full Text feature on the main Library web page allows you to perform simple searches across multiple databases. Because the various databases are structured differently, search results may vary widely. For more precise searching, it's best to search the databases individually. See the recommended databases below.
The list of databases below is only a selection. For more options, see the Databases subject listing.
Architecture and Planning Resources
- Avery Index to Architectural PeriodicalsThe Avery periodical index offers a comprehensive listing of journal articles published worldwide on architecture and design, archaeology, city planning, interior design, and historic preservation. Avery indexes not only the international scholarly and popular periodical literature, but also the publications of professional associations, US state and regional periodicals, and the major serial publications on architecture and design of Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Australia. Expanded coverage includes obituary citations. Coverage is from the 1930s (with selective coverage dating back to the 1860s) to the present.
- JSTORJSTOR is a fully-searchable database containing the back issues of several hundred scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, mathematics, music, ecology and botany, business, and other fields. It includes the following collections: Arts & sciences I, II and III, General science, Ecology and botany, Business, Language and literature.
- Urban Studies AbstractsUrban Studies Abstracts includes bibliographic records covering essential areas related to urban studies, including urban affairs, community development, urban history, and other areas of key relevance to the discipline. Records are selected from many of the top titles within the discipline, including Journal of Urban Affairs, Urban Studies, and Canadian Journal of Urban Research.
Additional Databases of Interest
- America: History & LifeAmerica: History and Life (AHL) is a complete bibliographic reference to the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. Published since 1964, the database comprises over 530,000 bibliographic entries for periodicals dating back to 1954. Additional bibliographical entries are constantly added to the databases from editorial projects such as retrospective coverage of journals issues published prior to 1954.
- Bibliography of Asian StudiesThis on-line version of the Bibliography of Asian Studies (BAS) contains over 750,000 records on all subjects (especially in the humanities and the social sciences) pertaining to East, Southeast, and South Asia published worldwide from 1971 to the present. Through the 1991 printed volume, the BAS included citations to Western-language periodical articles, monographs, chapters in edited volumes, conference proceedings, anthologies, and Festschriften, etc. Monographs published since 1992, however, have not been added to the database, and users seeking such monographs are urged to consult other general resources and databases such as OCLC.
- Historical AbstractsPublished since 1954, Historical Abstracts currently covers over 1,700 journals published worldwide in over forty languages. The database comprises over 720,000 entries from periodicals, with full-text links to over 135,000 articles and dissertations and masters' theses. Each year, the editors of Historical Abstracts add over 16,000 abstracts and citations, over 3,000 book citations, and over 1,200 citations of dissertations and masters' theses to the database from the current literature and publications. Additional bibliographical entries are also added to the database by editorial projects such as retrospective coverage of journal issues published prior to 1954.
- PAIS InternationalContains citations to public policy literature of economics, education, government, law, international business, political science, public administration, and other social sciences. It includes references to journal articles, books, government documents, reports and pamphlets in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese.
- Middle East and Africa Database"... a bibliographic and fulltext database that provides area coverage (especially for political development, social development, foreign policy, economic development, investment, oil and petrochemicals, trade and technological industries) for the Middle East, North Africa, the Sahel and the Horn of Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Arabs, Iranians, Turks and Africans worldwide, including in Europe and North and South America."
- Project MUSESearchable database that provides access to the full text of journals published by Johns Hopkins University Press and other university presses in the humanities, social sciences, and mathematics. Covers such fields as literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, and others.
- EconLit with Full TextFull-text articles in all fields of economics including capital markets, country studies, econometrics, economic forecasting, environmental economics, government regulations, labor economics, monetary theory and urban economics.
- Peace Research AbstractsCovers essential areas related to peace research, including conflict resolution, international affairs, peace psychology, and other areas of key relevance to the discipline.
- ProQuest Social Sciences Premium CollectionA major interdisciplinary database that covers many subjects: Criminology Collection, Education Collection, International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS), Library & Information Science Collection, Linguistics Collection, Politics Collection, Social Science Database, and Sociology Collection.
How to Read Citations
Learning how to interpret citations you find in scholarly books and articles is a critical research skill and essential to efficiently finding the material you need for your assignments. Watch this video to learn how.