Why Use Them?
Research projects often require you to look close up at a body of research produced by scholars in a particular field.
This research is typically collected, codified, and made 
findable in a tool called a subject database.
Every academic discipline has at least one subject database that's considered the disciplinary gold standard -- a reliable, (relatively) comprehensive, and accurate record of the books that scholars are publishing, and the ideas they're debating and discussing in important and influential journals.
Databases are like lenses: they change what you see and how you see it -- and they offer you easy and efficient ways to bring your questions into sharper focus.
Top Picks
Subject-Specific Databases To Try
- The premier database for legal information and scholarship, U.S. and worldwide
- The first and still most widely known full-text journal database, trusted for its content. JSTOR covers core scholarly journals in 75 fields. The module on Ireland enables you to search across 48 historically significant titles, dedicated to Irish history, politics, and culture -- so a great bet for zeroing in on research for your essays.
- The key resource for scholarship on world history (excluding the U.S. and Canada), 1450-present
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
- The gold standard for scholarship on politics, political philosophy, theory, political psychology, and more.
