Periodical Indexes and Databases
Given the multidisciplinary perspectives from which literature can be approached, the following list represents only those resources centered for the most part on literary study. Others, such as Philosophers Index, Historical Abstracts, Women's Studies International or PsycINFO may be just as relevant depending on the specific subject. Searching the Library Catalog and Databases will identify or provide access to far more of these resources than can be listed here.
- Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI)A component of Web of Science -- AHCI offers multidisciplinary journal coverage of the arts & humanities. It can also be searched by cited references to specific works that appear in article bibliographies. Coverage range is1975 - date. From the main Web of Science search screen, select More Settings, and uncheck all but the AHCI checkbox.
- British Humanities Index. London: The Library Association, 1962- . Olin Reference AI 3 S94++
An index to about 375 British periodicals in the social sciences and humanities. Among the disciplines covered are literature, classics, political science, economics and history. Issued 4 times/year. Quarterly issues contain subject listings only; annual cumulations have author and subject. - Comprehensive Index to English-language Little Magazines, 1890-1970, Series One edited by Marion Sader. Millwood, NY: Kraus Thomson, 1976. 8 vols. Olin Reference AI3 S12+
Indexes articles, creative works, letters and reviews published in 100 small literary magazines published between 1890 - 1970, roughly half of them American. Arrangement is alphapbetical by author or subject. - Humanities Index. New York: Wilson Co., 1974- . Olin Reference AI 3 H91+ An author and subject index to over 250 English language scholarly journals. "Subject fields indexed include archaeology and classical studies, area studies, folklore, history, language and literature...philosophy, religion, and theology." Also includes an author index to book reviews which have appeared in the journals indexed. Continues Social Sciences and Humanities Index and the International Index.
- 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.
- Index to Commonwealth Little Magazines. 1964 -. Olin Reference AI 3 I368
Contains author and subject indexes to "little" magazines, mostly literary periodicals, published in Great Britain, Commonwealth, and ex-Commonwealth countries.
- International Medieval Bibliography Online (IMB)The International Medieval Bibliography (IMB) is the world's leading interdisciplinary bibliography of the European Middle Ages, covering Europe, the Middle East and North Africa in the period 400-1500. The IMB was founded in 1967 with the support of the Medieval Academy of America. Its editorial staff is based at the International Medieval Institute at the University of Leeds, and the project is supported by over 50 teams of contributors in Europe, North America, Australia and Japan. The database comprises over 300,000 articles derived from regular coverage of some 4500 periodicals and 5000 miscellany volume (conference proceedings, essay collections, Festschriften and exhibition catalogues). All articles are classified with full bibliographical details and subject classifications and indexing familiar to medievalists.
- Iter : gateway to the Middle Ages and RenaissanceA bibliographic database of interdisciplinary journal literature pertaining to the Middle Ages and Renaissance, 400-1700. Includes articles, reviews, bibliographies, catalogs, editions, abstracts, discographies, and notes.
- 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.
- 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.
- Project MUSESearchable database that provides access to the full text of journals and ebooks published by 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.
- ProQuest One LiteratureFormer name: Literature Online. Offers a full-text collection of poetry, drama, and prose with complementary references sources as well as articles, monographs and dissertations from the Annual bibliography of English language and literature (ABELL); full-text articles from literary journals; and biographical information on widely studied authors.
- Eight CenturiesFormerly known as 19th Century Masterfile. Searchable index to a variety of 19th century Anglo-American periodical articles, documents and other primary and secondary sources published before 1930. Many links to full text. Aggregates indexes to books, periodicals, newspapers, government documents and patents into a single resource.
- Periodical Poetry Index"...a research database of citations to English-language poems published in nineteenth-century periodicals, including texts by nineteenth-century British and American poets, poets from earlier periods, and poems in English translation. ... offers: full bibliographic citations to the poems; links to open access, digitized periodical volumes; the text of the first line; and notes on poem length, illustration, author gender, and other features... includes over 2,500 poems from Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1817-1900), Cornhill Magazine (1860-1900), and Macmillan's Magazine (1859-1900)..."--History.
- Periodicals Index OnlineIndex to thousands of periodicals in the arts, humanities and social sciences across more than 300 years, covering each periodical from its first issue. Every article is indexed. The scope is international, including journals in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and other languages. Previously known as Periodicals Contents Index (PCI).
- Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals, 1824-1900The vast majority of articles written for Victorian periodicals were published anonymously, or under pseudonyms. The Wellesley Index identifies the authors of articles within major Victorian periodicals, and provides a bibliography for each contributor. 45 important monthly and quarterly titles are included, covering the period from the beginning of the Westminster Review in 1824 to the end of the century. The exception to this is the Edinburgh Review, which is indexed from first issue, in 1802. Wellesley does not index poetry.
For British History...
The following databases are useful for finding secondary material on the history of Great Britain:
- 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.
- Bibliography of British and Irish HistoryIndexes books, articles, book chapters, etc. in the area of British and Irish history. Excellent. Began in the late 19th century.
- Cambridge Histories OnlineProvides full text online access to the complete 300-plus volumes of Cambridge Histories reference series. Provides political, economic and social history, philosophy and literature of selected countries and subjects.