When searching for scholarly journal articles, among other publication types, for your research and assignments we recommend the databases listed below.
You can use ‘Library Search’ to search across multiple resources and databases simultaneously but using these individual databases will help you focus your search to the most relevant literature. It will also allow you to take advantage of some of the unique search features of each database.
We've listed the main 'disciplinary' specific databases which focus on a particular subject area as well as some 'multi-disciplinary' databases which allow you to search across multiple disciplines/subject areas.
Want to browse a particular journal? Our Journal Finder tool is an excellent tool to see the range of journals we have in history (expand 'History & Archaeology' to see history journals.
Full text access to approximately 411 peer-reviewed journals covering all the main subjects in the humanities, social sciences and hard sciences: mathematics and applied science, neuroscience and biomedicine, history, language and linguistics, political science and international relations. Now includes access to Cambridge Journals Digital Archive, the complete digital archive of Camridge journals, providing instant online access to two centuries of academic excellence and publishing history from Cambridge University Press.
To access, choose Dublin City University from the drop down menu and click ‘login’.
The Social History Archive offers access to the largest collection of British and Irish historical resources online. It covers 3 collections: the 1921 census of England & Wales, British Newspaper Archive and records. The digital archive contains over 14 billion records which offer centuries of data and insights. Through access to a diverse range of source material, including newspapers, census returns, crime reports and emigration records, researchers can delve into the people, places and events that have shaped the world. The archive is fully searchable through a powerful search function, with advanced and simple options, using keywords, names, dates, and even phrases to pinpoint accurate results faster.
The following multidisciplinary citation databases can be useful as they allow you to search the scholarly literature across multiple disciplines (physical sciences, health sciences, social sciences, and life sciences) at the one time.
Scopus and Web of Science are citation indexes so you can track research via citations. You can see the references cited by each paper and view the papers that have subsequently cited a particular paper. It’s like looking back in time (the references cited by a paper) but also forward in time (the papers that cite a particular paper).
Academic Search Complete is another multidisciplinary database available on the EBSCOhost platform.
Scopus is one of the largest multi-disciplinary abstracting and indexing databases of research literature and quality web sources. It offers access to over 16,000 titles from more than 4000 international publishers, with abstracts available back to 1966. Citation data is available from 1996. Coverage includes scientific, technical, medical and social sciences literature, including arts and humanities. There are also 23 million patent records from 5 patent offices as well as links to 'Articles in Press' from over 3,000 journals.
Scopus Library Guide | E-tutorials and demos
Scopus is a citation index so you can track research via citations. You can see the references cited by each paper and view the papers that have subsequently cited a particular paper. It’s like looking back in time (the references cited by a paper) but also forward in time (the papers that cite a particular paper).
Web of Science is a citation index so you can track research via citations. You can see the references cited by each paper and view the papers that have subsequently cited a particular paper. It’s like looking back in time (the references cited by a paper) but also forward in time (the papers that cite a particular paper).
WoS is a multidisciplinary citation database covering over 10,000 of the world's highest impact research journals. It also offers the unique "citation searching" feature, allowing users to see how many times a paper/author has been cited and by whom. It consists of the three databases: the Science Citation Index Expanded (1945-present), the Social Sciences Citation Index (1956-present) and Arts & Humanities Citation Index (1975-present).
Help & E-tutorials: Web of Science - Search Tips (05:37 minutes) | Web Of Science Library Guide
Web of Knowledge is a web-based platform which provides access to high-quality research information. Several products are available to search within the Web of Knowledge platform
Full-text access to more than 8,000 journals (over 7,000 peer-reviewed) and indexing for almost 12,000 covering the following disciplines: business, communications, computer science, biology, chemistry, engineering, physics, psychology, education and nursing.
Coverage: Varies according to title.
Archive of almost 2,000 core scholarly journals in Anthropology, Economics, Education, Finance, History, Language & Literature, Mathematics, Philosophy, Political Science, Population Studies, Sociology and Statistics. Current content is not generally available.
Coverage: Varies according to title.