Why use a database?
We all know that we can find articles on the web. Why use a database?
- You can find all of the scholarly articles that aren't freely available on the web (but that are available through the Cornell library's online, and print, subscriptions).
- You can create a fancier search that finds what you are really searching for.
- You can search discipline-specific databases -- for example, databases that specialize in History, Economics, Political Science, Sociology and more -- to find articles from journals in those disciplines.
But ... how do we know what databases there are? Ask a Librarian or find a relevant research guide.
Selected Databases
These are only a few of the hundreds of databases we have. Ask a Librarian for suggestions!
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Academic Search CompleteMultidisciplinary and multi-genre--scholarly journals, scholarly journals, magazines, reports, newspapers. Lots of full text.
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America: History and LifeIdentifies articles, essays, books chapters and monographs on the history of the United States and Canada, from prehistory to the present. Strong coverage of U.S. social and political topics.
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Race Relations Abstracts"Race Relations Abstracts includes bibliographic records covering essential areas related to race relations, including ethnic studies, discrimination, immigration studies, and other areas of key relevance to the discipline. Records are selected from many of the top titles within the discipline, including Race, Ethnicity & Education and Ethnic & Racial Studies." [About the database.]
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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.
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GenderWatchFocuses on the impact of gender across a broad spectrum of subject areas .... including family, childbirth, birth control, daycare, domestic abuse, work and the workplace, sexual harassment, aging, aging parents, body image, eating disorders and social and societal roles.
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Worldwide Political Science AbstractsPlace quotation marks around phrases.