A few databases to start with
- Academic Search CompleteMultidisciplinary and multi-genre--scholarly journals, scholarly journals, magazines, reports, newspapers. Lots of full text.
- Proquest Research LibraryAnother general periodical index, useful for a wide variety of topics.
Enter your search terms. Place quotation marks around phrases. - Worldwide Political Science AbstractsProquest databases search the full text of articles for your search terms. To find more relevant results, where your search terms are part of the title, abstract, or subject terms, begin your search with NOFT, followed by your search terms in parentheses, e.g. NOFT(autocra* AND democra* and backsliding)
Covers political science and its complementary fields, including international relations, law, public administration, and public policy.).
- Articles & Full text search from the library homepage
Note: From the library homepage, you will find the link to search Articles & Full text. The filters are across the top. This interface is from the EBSCO discovery system, connecting to some (but not all) of the library's databases and collections.
Finding a relevant database
There are a number of ways to find a relevant database:
- Easiest and quickest? Ask a Librarian!
- Browse through the library Research Guides, listing the best databases by subject area.
- From the library homepage, leave the search window empty and select Databases from the drop-down menu to browse databases by category.
- Search the library catalog using broad subject terms and use the filters to select "database." Note: You will find more than article databases with this search, but it's very interesting to see what's there! Example: A search for Russia, filtered to "Database."
Note: The library homepage also has an Articles and Full Text search from one of our vendors, EBSCO. This will cast your search across a wide number (but not all) of our databases. Sometimes this will be all you will need or want. Other times, the subject-specific databases will provide better results. Don't be shy about asking us for a database recommendation for your topic!