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 Bibliographies
Oxford Bibliographies Online: Curated reading lists, put together by scholars, to identify some of the most important and most influential research and scholarship on topics from across the humanities, social scienes, and their intersections.
Examples relevant to course themes:
- War (Philosophy)
- Civilians (Military History)
- War (Childhood Studies)
- 20th Century French Empire
- Algeria (African Studies)
Subject Databases: History and Regional Studies
- America: History and Life :North America, prehistory to present
- Historical Abstracts: World history, excepting U.S. and Canada, 1400-present
- Africa Wide Recommended for additional perspectives on the Algeria
- MECAS: Middle East and Central Asian Studies; Recommended for perspectives on Iraq
Multidisciplinary Databases We Also Recommend
The first and still most widely known full-text journal database, trusted for its content. JSTOR covers core scholarly journals in 75 fields. The most recent issues of journals may not even appear in aJSTOR search, however, if they are behind the database's 1-5 year "moving wall."
This database can be a good next step once you've explored content available in HOLLIS, particularly if you feel overwhelmed -- or sometimes, underwhelmed -- by the journal and article search results you've uncovered there. While much of what ASP searches is from scholarly sources,generous amounts also come from newspaper and general interest magazines. Like HOLLIS,ASP casts a wide net, so you might see your topic treated from a number of disciplinary angles or through a variety of theoretical lenses.
Its algorithms are excellent and do return relevant results. This database searches full-text, which can be an advantage when you've got a very narrow topic or are seeking a "nugget" that traditional database searching can't surface easily.
One simple change can turn Google Scholar into what's effectively another multidisciplinary Harvard database -- with links to the full-text of articles that the library can provide.
Here's what to do: Look to the left of the GS home screen and click on the "hamburger" (
); then click on 
. Look for "Library Links." Then type Harvard into the search box and save your choice. As long as you allow cookies, the settings will keep.
