LibGuides: Research Basics at Lavery Library: 3. Select a Database

Select a Database

You can bring these skills together by searching a library database to find articles for your research. You have two options:

You can use a general research database, which will help you find and read articles that have been published in journals in a variety of subjects.
Or, you can use a subject-specific database. The library has specialized databases for many subjects, such as psychology, English literature, science, education, sport management, and many more.

Recommended Databases for Any Subject

The librarians recommend these general research databases for most research topics. They are a good place to start because they cover all disciplines:

Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
A full-text database containing complete back runs of over 600 academic journals in the arts, sciences, and business. Titles in the database are 1-5 years behind the current issues, depending on publisher restrictions.
ProQuest Research Library This link opens in a new window
ProQuest Research Library provides abstracts, indexing, and full-text of articles from scholarly journals, popular magazines, and key business publications. The database covers more than 3,700 publications, with full-text from over 2,500 publications. Titles are from 1972 forward, and the database is updated monthly.
Sage Journals This link opens in a new window
"The SAGE Full-Text Collections are award-winning, discipline-specific research databases of the most popular peer-reviewed journals in Communication Studies, Criminology, Education, Health Sciences, Management & Organization Studies, Materials Science, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, and Urban Studies & Planning published by SAGE Publications and participating societies.

These comprehensive databases include more than 246 journals, 240,000 articles, book reviews, and editorials, with all the original graphics, tables, and page numbers. The Collections provide researchers and students with a research environment that is easy to use and complete with the most up-to-date content and backfiles back to volume 1, issue 1."

You can go to Lavery Library's A to Z list of databases to find the best databases for your research project.

A to Z list of databases

Wondering which database to choose? Ask your instructor. Or you can ask a librarian! We are here to help.

Use a Subject-Specific Database

You can see a list of databases for each subject.

Visit the library homepage [link opens in new tab].
Select Find Databases.
You will see a list of Lavery Library's database subscriptions. To select the best database for your topic, you can either search by database keyword (eg. education), or select Subjects to view a list of databases that are a good fit for that subject.