Research Guides: African Studies : Databases

Article Databases

The databases below will help you locate scholarly journal, magazine, and newspaper articles related to your topic. Articles can serve as secondary or primary sources, depending on when they were written. You can also use articles to identify potential primary sources. To locate a specific journal/magazine/newspaper, use Find a Journal. Still not finding what you need? Ask me!

MULTIDISCIPLINARY DATABASES

JSTOR
JSTOR is a multidisciplinary database that provides historical coverage for scholarly journals, many all the way back to the first issue, as well as British pamphlets. JSTOR searches the full text of every article, so remember to put phrases in quotations to keep terms together. You can narrow your search further by using the subject areas below the search boxes.
ProQuest Middle East & Africa Database
This database provides ongoing full-text academic journals that are locally published by scholarly publishing organizations and educational institutions in many Middle Eastern and African countries. Major subject areas of study are represented, including business, science, technology, engineering, social sciences, education, and humanities.
Coverage: 1980s-

DISCIPLINARY DATABASES

These databases contain material from a particular discipline, such as law, politics and international affairs, sociology, and music. Not seeing what you need? There are many more disciplinary resources available through Find a Database.

Atla Religion Database with AtlaSerials PLUS This link opens in a new window
The premier database for research in religious studies, the Atla database provides full-text coverage for major international journals, magazines, and professional publications. Multiple religious traditions and related disciplines, such as anthropology, political science, counseling, and history are represented. Coverage: 1818-
EconLit This link opens in a new window
Contains citations to, and selected abstracts of, the field of economics from international journal articles, dissertations, and books, books chapters and articles and conference proceedings. Coverage: 1969-
HeinOnline Law Journal Library This link opens in a new window
Contains more than 2,000 law and law-related periodicals. Coverage generally begins with the first issue published, so contains over a century of law and legal scholarship.
Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Provides indexing and abstracts for journal articles, books, and dissertations covering the history of the world from 1450-- except the U.S. and Canada. For similar coverage of the U.S. and Canada, use America History and Life. Access is limited to six simultaneous users. Coverage: 1954-
MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
Contains articles, books, chapters of books, conference proceedings, dissertations, and working papers on topics relating to literature, modern languages, folklore, and linguistics. Coverage: 1926-
PAIS Index This link opens in a new window
Covers current issues through selective coverage of a wide variety of international sources including journal articles, books, government documents, statistical directories, grey literature, research reports, conference papers, web content, and more. Coverage: 1915-
ProQuest Political Science Database This link opens in a new window
Contains hundreds of leading political science and international relations journals, full-text doctoral dissertations, working papers, conference proceedings, country profiles, political news and other sources. This link cross searches ProQuest Political Science Database, PAIS Index, and Worldwide Political Science Abstracts. Coverage: 1985-
ProQuest Sociology Database This link opens in a new window
This database covers the international literature of sociology and social work, including culture and social structure, history and theory of sociology, social psychology, substance abuse and addiction and more. This collection provides full-text coverage of many core titles included in Sociological Abstracts and Social Services Abstracts. Coverage: 1985-
PubMed This link opens in a new window
Citation database with access to MEDLINE covering the fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, and preclinical sciences. Other services include the Journal Browser, MeSH (Medical Subject Heading) Browser, Citation Matcher, and Clinical Queries. Coverage: 1946-
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature This link opens in a new window
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature is a comprehensive bibliography on writings about music featuring citations, abstracts, and indexes. It covers over one million publications from around the world on traditional music, popular music, classical music, and related subjects. Coverage begins in the early 19th century and extends to the present. Coverage: 1967-

Tips for Searching Article Databases

The databases listed here may help you find and get access to newspaper articles, magazines articles, and scholarly journal articles about your topic. But how do you get started?

1. Choose keywords that describe your topic and consider how different authors might describe the same topic. For example: (women OR gender) AND patriarch* AND "east Africa"

2. Use the tools provided by the database to narrow your search by date, document type, and more.

3. Read the abstract or summary of the article to decide if it is relevant to your topic.

4. If the article is relevant, make sure to save it! ZSR recommends saving it to Zotero (which will also help you cite it later in your paper!). You can also email it to yourself or copy the permalink (NOT the link in the browser bar!).

Need help? Ask a librarian!