Why Use A Database?
Search a database to find journal, magazine, or newspaper articles. Some databases also provide access to other materials such as dissertations, book chapters, books, datasets, sound recordings, videos, etc.
This page lists databases that help you find journal articles (and some other materials). See tab to the left for databases related to finding policy issues and papers.
This page lists databases that help you find journal articles (and some other materials). See tab to the left for databases related to finding policy issues and papers.
- If the full text of an article is not available within a database, try one of these three ways to figure out if the library has the journal, or call the Research Help Desk at 405-325-4142 for assistance.
- What if you tried those three things and the library does not have a journal article that you need? We can still get it for you via our interlibrary loan service. It's free! And articles often come electronically within a few days.
- If you need a list of public policy journals, see the Journals Ranked by JCR tab, to the left.
Subject Specific Databases
- America: History and Life (Ebsco)U.S. and Canadian topics, prehistory to the present. References to or full text of journal articles, books, book reviews, dissertations, etc.
- CINAHL Complete (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health; Ebsco)Nursing, allied health, biomedicine, consumer health, and health sciences librarianship. References to or full text of journal articles, books, dissertations, standards of professional practice, educational software, and more.
- ERIC (Education; Ebsco)Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. References to or full text of journal articles and research reports, which are generally not peer reviewed (ERIC Documents).
NOTE: Note: The Department of Education is working with the Department of Government Efficiency to "reduce overall spending" and "reallocate spending to promote efficiency" (EO14222). As a result, the number of records added to the ERIC collection will be significantly reduced from approximately 1,200 to 700 (roughly 45%) by April 25, 2025. All records currently in ERIC will remain. Indexed journals confirmed to be removed are being added to this list. The Libraries has subscriptions to other resources that provide scholarly sources about education, including Education Full Text and Professional Development Collection. - HeinOnline (Law)Legal periodicals, code of federal regulations, legal classics, treaties and agreements, U.S. Attorney General opinions, U.S. Federal Legislative History, U.S. Presidential Library, U.S. statutes at large, the U.S. Supreme Court Library, and more.
- MEDLINE (Medicine; Ebsco)Medicine, dentistry, nursing, and other health fields. Created by the National Library of Medicine. References to or full text of journal articles and some magazine articles.
- Military and Government Collection (Ebsco)Current news pertaining to all branches of the military. References to or full text of journal and magazine articles, trade publications, reviews, newspaper articles, government documents, books, and more.
- ProQuest One Business (formerly ABI/INFORM)Focus is on business and management topics, but includes many other subjects as well. References to or full text of journal, magazine, and newspaper articles, books, videos, company reports, and more.
- Social Work Abstracts (Ebsco)Indexes and abstracts journals in all areas of the profession, including theory and practice, areas of service, social issues, and social problems.
Databases for Public Policy
These databases are commonly used to find journal articles on public policy issues, but many of the databases in other categories (other subjects and multidisciplinary) on this page may also be relevant, depending on what you're researching.
- Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO)International politics and related fields, including security studies, global finance, diplomatic practice, humanitarian law, global governance, development studies, and environmental studies. Includes working papers, policy briefs, and current analysis and commentary, as well as scholarly journal articles, e-books, and videos. Economist Intelligence Unit supplies comprehensive country surveys, including in-depth political and economic data and detailed maps.
- EconLit (Proquest)Covers both economic theory and application. References to or full text of journal articles, books, working papers, dissertations, and more.
- PAIS (Public Affairs Information Service) International (Proquest)Public and social policy issues, foreign and domestic. References to or full text of journal articles, government documents, books, pamphlets, yearbooks, statistical directories, grey literature, and more.
- Worldwide Political Science Abstracts (Proquest)Political science and its complementary fields, including international relations, law, and public administration/policy. References to or full text of journal articles, book reviews, books, dissertations, and working papers.
Multidisciplinary Databases
- Academic Search Complete (Ebsco)Multidisciplinary database. References to or full text of journal and magazine articles, major newspaper articles, book reviews, and more.
- Google ScholarGoogle Scholar enables you to search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research. Use Google Scholar to find articles from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as scholarly articles available across the web.
When off campus, be sure to access Google Scholar settings > library links > type in University of Oklahoma. - JSTORIncludes the full text and complete archives of core scholarly journals in many disciplines, some dating from the 1600s. Current issues may not be available.
- SSRN (Social Science Research Network)SSRN is a worldwide collaborative of over 330,600 authors and more than 2.2 million users that is devoted to the rapid worldwide dissemination of research. NOTE: "Check for Full Text" is not available in this database; you must search the Local Catalog for the title of the journal to see if we own it.