The following are the most highly recommended databases as they provide in-depth coverage of the subject areas relevant to the topics for exploration. The Searching Tips and Techniques and Locating and Evaluating Scholarly Articles sections of this conference provide information on how to choose and arrange search terms as well as how to evaluate the search results. Not all of these databases include full text resources, however by clicking on the Find It button for relevant citations you will be taken to the full text of the article if it is available in another database.
| Communication and Mass Media Complete | Communication and mass media topics in journals, major journalism reviews, and recent encyclopedia and handbooks from 1915 to the present. |
| PsycINFO | Scholarly psychology material including original research, articles, literature reviews, case studies, and descriptions of tests from 1887 to the present. |
| Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection | Scholarly psychology journals; dates of coverage vary by journal title |
| Sociological Abstracts | International literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences and includes journal articles, book reviews, book chapters, dissertations, and conference papers. Although not full-text, many of the citations link to the full-text available from other UMUC databases. |
| Sociology: A SAGE Full-Text Collection: | Sociology and related discipline topics from SAGE e-journals, some from 1982 to the present. |
| Psychology: A SAGE Full-Text Collection | Psychology and related discipline topics from the publisher SAGE e-journals, dates of coverage vary by journal title. |
| Social Sciences Citation Index | Journal literature in the social and behavioral sciences, including related topics in economics, law, management, and sciences from 1956 to the present. |
| SocINDEX with Full Text | Primarily a full text sociological database with articles dating from 1895 to the present. Also contains the full text for sociological e-books, monographs, and conference papers. |
| Social Sciences Abstracts | Anthropology, political science, economics, psychology, geography, sociology, and law journals from 1983 to the present. Although not full-text, many of the citations link to the full-text available from other UMUC databases. |
| AnthroSource | Journals from the American Anthropological Association (AAA) including current issues for the AAA's most critical peer-reviewed publications. Access to archival content in JSTOR for key AAA publications. |
| JSTOR | Arts, business, education, language, literature, and science journals. Provides a historical perspective because coverage starts as early as the 1900s and extends up to 3-5 years prior to the current year. When using the advanced searching option you can limit your search to journals within specific disciplines. |
As discussed earlier on this page when approaching a research question it is best to explore the question from more than one perspective in order to get a balanced response. The databases included here provide in-depth coverage in subject-specific areas.
| ABI/Inform Global | Business perspective: Accounting, business, finance, international business, marketing, and management journals as well as company and industry topics from 1971 to the present. |
| Business Source Complete | Business perspective: Business, management, economics, finance, accounting, international business, and company and industry information journal articles, case studies and industry reports from 1965 to the present. |
| ERIC | Education perspective: Education journals, books, proceedings, reports, and Department of Education publications from 1960 to the present. |
| Education Research Complete | Education perspective: Includes scholarly research and information in journals, e-books, monographs, and conference papers relating to all areas of education. |
| CIAO | International affairs perspective: International affairs, politics, economics, public policy, culture and conflict journal articles and e-books from 1991 to the present. |
| PAIS International | International affairs perspective: Global public policy and social issues related to business, economics, finance, law, international relations, public administration, government, political science, terrorism, and other social sciences from a variety of sources covering 1972 to the present. |
| Political Handbook of the World | Political perspective: Facts and analysis about government and political information on countries around the world. |
| Worldwide Political Science Abstracts | Political perspective: Provides citations, abstracts, and indexing of the international journal literature in political science and its complementary fields, including international relations, law, and public administration/policy. |
| America: History and Life | Historical Perspective: U.S. and Canadian history covering the prehistoric era onwards for journals published worldwide from 1964 to the present. |
| Historical Abstracts | Historical Perspective: World history from 1450 to the present (excluding the United States and Canada) in journal articles from 1955 to the present. |
| Contemporary Women's Issues | Gender perspective: Gender equity, pay equity, health, family life, legal status, reproductive rights, women in the workplace, women in business, education and political issues from 1992 to the present. |
| GenderWatch | Gender perspective: Gender issues articles in a wide range of subject areas, particularly women's studies, family studies, psychology, contemporary culture, and gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) studies. |
This group of database provides access to resources in more than one discipline. However, although useful for preliminary searching, they do not provide the depth of coverage available from those databases listed under highly recommended and subject-specific databases.
| Academic Search Premier | Arts, humanities, science, social sciences, business, and technology journals from 1965 to the present. |
| WilsonSelectPlus | Science, social sciences, humanities, literature, and business journal articles from 1994 to the present. |