Tips for Searching Academic Databases
Each academic database is a bit different. Check out this tutorial for some tips on how to get the most out of your database searches to find articles, and identify common search features.
Pro-Tip: Full screen this video and open your favorite database in a second window to follow along!
Scholarly and Popular Sources
This handout is your roadmap to understanding the differences between scholarly and popular sources! It includes helpful examples of each source type and tips for how to distinguish between the two within library databases.
- Scholarly Sources handout Accessible version of this handout available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PgXt4vmEnhjD0V2X01GleAMVD_ZwVm6w/view
Using Databases to find Research Articles
A database is an electronic collection of information that can be organized and searched. Academic databases in particular can be used to search for scholarly journals, articles, and encyclopedia entries that you can use in your research and writing. There are many different kinds of academic databases, including the following:
- Subject databases: These are databases that organize resources on a given discipline or subject area. Subject databases are effective for a deep exploration into a single discipline or focus area.
- Interdisciplinary databases: Unlike subject databases, interdisciplinary databases search for resources across multiple disciplines. Interdisciplinary databases can be a great starting-off point for looking for resources like articles, and can help you familiarize yourself with the terminology of various disciplines.
Below you will find lists of Subject Databases and Interdisciplinary Databases you can use to find scholarly resources relevant to global Islamic studies.
Subject Databases
- Oxford Islamic Studies Online This link opens in a new window
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"Oxford Islamic Studies Online is a comprehensive reference center with a global perspective and is a source of timely, reliable, and accessible information on the history, peoples, beliefs, individuals, and cultures that constitute the world of Islam. The site includes two essential English-language interpretations of the Qur'an, the first electronic version of the standard Concordance used by English-speaking scholars around the world, and primary source documents. Special features and tools include timelines, Qur'an Verse Look-up, a Date Converter for Western and Islamic calendar dates, and more."
- Oxford Bibliographies: Encyclopedia of Islam
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Annotated bibliographies for topics in the field of Islamic Studies. Combines encyclopedia-style introductions with expert recommendations of the most important reference works, books, journals, and primary sources on the topic.
- Encyclopaedia Islamica This link opens in a new window
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Encyclopaedia Islamica Online is based on the abridged and edited translation of the Persian Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif-i Buzurg-i Islāmī, a comprehensive sources on Islam and the Muslim world. In addition to providing entries on important themes, subjects and personages in Islam generally, Encyclopaedia Islamica Online offers the Western reader an opportunity to appreciate the various dimensions of Shiʿi Islam, the Persian contribution to Islamic civilization, and the spiritual dimensions of the Islamic tradition.
- Index Islamicus This link opens in a new window
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This database "indexes literature on Islam, the Middle East and the Muslim world....Material cited in the Index Islamicus includes not only work written about the Middle East, but also about the other main Muslim areas of Asia and Africa, plus Muslim minorities elsewhere. Over 2,000 journals are monitored for inclusion in the database, together with conference proceedings, monographs, multi-authored works and book reviews. Journals and books are indexed down to the article and chapter level."
Interdisciplinary Databases
This is a selective list. To view the complete list of databases available through the UCLA Library, head to our A-Z Databases link!
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
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A multidisciplinary database that indexes over 10,000 publications, with the complete text of over 5,500 periodicals, including a mix of peer-reviewed journals, magazines, and newspapers. - Anthropology Plus This link opens in a new window
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Contains records from Anthropological Literature and Anthropological Index for journal articles, reports, commentaries, edited works, and obituaries in the fields of social, cultural, physical, biological, and linguistic anthropology, ethnology, ethnography, archaeology, folklore, material culture, and interdisciplinary studies. Covers the late 19th century to the present. - JSTOR This link opens in a new window
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Full text back issues of core scholarly journals, browsable and searchable across multiple disciplines. Coverage starts with first issue, with moving wall for most recent 3-5 years. UCLA has access to selected JSTOR e-books only. JSTOR also includes primary source collections, including images from Artstor.
- Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
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Full text of current issues (from about 1990) of scholarly journals published by university presses, chiefly in the arts, humanities and social sciences. Browsable by discipline and full-text searchable across all disciplines. UCLA has access to Muse e-books published from 2017-present, plus a selected number of other e-book titles.
- ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global This link opens in a new window
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Index to doctoral dissertations from 1637 to the present, with abstracts since 1980. A number of master's theses are also indexed, with abstracts since 1988. Many are available for download in pdf format. UCLA has access to all full text dissertations in the database. Non-UCLA users may use Dissertations Express to purchase digital or print copies of individual dissertations. - Web of Science This link opens in a new window
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A multidisciplinary database, with searchable author abstracts, covering the journal literature of most disciplines. Indexes major journals with all cited references captured. Combines the following citation databases: Science Citation Index Expanded; Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI); Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI); Conference Proceedings Citation Index.
- Reference Universe This link opens in a new window
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A good place to start, but note that it is an index to over 15 million articles in 11,000 subject encyclopedias and handbooks, both print and online and does not provide full-text articles. Instead, it will connect you to our catalog so you know where to find the appropriate encyclopedia, dictionary or other reference work. You will be linked to UCLA's holdings for any entries you find.
- Worldwide Political Science Abstracts This link opens in a new window
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Citations, abstracts, and indexing of the international literature in political science, international relations, law, and public policy.