Useful Tips
Databases identify and locate articles published in magazines, journals and newspapers. Many databases also index essays, book chapters and monographs.
Tip 1: Many databases provide full-text of journal articles.
Tip 2: If the database does not provide full-text, use Get it! Cornell or search the library catalog for the journal title (or book title). This will provide you with Cornell's holdings of the journal (in both print and electronic form).
Tip 3: For more precise searching, it is best to search the databases individually (rather than using Articles search).
Don't pay for stuff!
Never pay for an article or book or access to resources.
In most cases (except for textbooks), the Cornell Library has online journals, newspapers, magazines, ebooks and print books, or can get them for you at no charge to you! Access Anywhere can help you find it at Cornell, or Ask a Librarian.
Databases for Journal Articles & Articles in Books
The Articles and 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.
Literature Databases
- MLA International BibliographyThe premier scholarly bibliography covering languages, literatures, folklore, film and linguistics from all over the world. Online coverage back to 1926. Includes books, articles in books, and journal articles. Does not index book reviews.
- Gale LiteratureA literature database combining biographical, bibliographical, and contextual
information on authors and their works (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, history, and journalism). Includes both textual and visual material from the Dictionary of Literary Biography, Contemporary Authors, and Contemporary Literary Criticism. - Humanities International IndexIndexes articles and books across the arts and humanities disciplines from a multitude of U.S. and international publications. HII also provides citations for original creative works including poems, fiction, photographs, paintings and illustrations. Many links to full text.
Social Sciences, History, and Multidisiplinary Databases
- Academic Search PremierThis multi-disciplinary database provides full text for more than 8,500 journals, including full text for more than 4,600 peer-reviewed titles. PDF backfiles to 1975 or further are available for well over one hundred journals, and searchable cited references are provided for more than 1,000 titles.
- 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.
- Black Studies CenterBlack Studies Center combines invaluable resources for research and teaching in Black studies: Schomburg studies on the Black experience, International index of Black periodicals (IIBP), The Chicago defender, ProQuest dissertations for Black studies, and Black literature index. This fully cross-searchable gateway to Black studies includes scholarly essays, recent periodicals, historical newspaper articles, and much more.
- Ethnic NewsWatchEthnic NewsWatch is a full-text collection of the newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press from 1960.
- 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.
- 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.
- PsycINFOContains citations and summaries of the international literature in psychology and related behavioral and social sciences, including psychiatry, sociology, anthropology, education, pharmacology, and linguistics. Includes applied psychology, communication systems, developmental psychology, educational psychology, experimental human and animal psychology, personality, physical and psychological disorders, physiological psychology and intervention, professional personnel and issues, psychometrics, social processes and issues, sports psychology and leisure, and treatment and prevention.
- Sociology Source UltimateAn expanded version of SocINDEX, including greater coverage of peer-reviewed journals, international resources and open access titles. Provides citations and direct links to the texts of journal articles, book chapters and conference proceedings, some as far back as 1880. Comprehensive coverage encompassing sub-disciplines and related areas of the social sciences, including labor, crime, demography, economic sociology, immigration, ethnic, racial and gender studies, family, political sociology, religion, development, social psychology, social structure, social work, socio-cultural anthropology, social history, theory, methodology, and more.”