The WashU Libraries provides some great interdisciplinary databases for you when just beginning to look for articles for your research.
Interdisciplinary databases are just what they sound like, they cover many different topics. For example, if you were working on the topic of feminism is popular culture, when searching an interdisciplinary database, you might get results that were psychology focuses, business focused, or media. the search might provide you with lots of results and some may offer a different perspective on a topic that you had not thought of previously.
Some examples of Interdisciplinary Databases that the WashU Libraries offers are listed below.
The How to Videos and Tutorials Tab includes videos that walk you through searching several multidisciplinary databases.
Thousands of journals and other publications covering most subjects.
Journals, books, images and primary sources.
Peer reviewed, interdisciplinary journals from leading university presses, not-for-profit publishers and prestigious scholarly societies.
Provides access to databases covering international literature in social sciences, including politics, public policy, sociology, social work, anthropology, criminology, linguistics, library science, and education.
Once you have searched some of the multidisciplinary databases, you may want to also search some subject-specific databases.
Subject-specific databases are just what they imply, they cover a very specific subject/focus within that database.
Some examples of subject-specific databases that the WashU Libraries offers are listed below.
Journal articles, chapters, books, dissertations and reports on psychology and related fields. Updated weekly.
Scholarly journals and other sources including books, conference proceedings, industry reports, company profiles, financial data, case studies, and more. Updated daily.
Index and abstracts for more than 270 publications (and selected coverage of more than 300), as well as full text for more than 70 journals and nearly 50 books. Subject coverage includes film & television theory, preservation & restoration, writing, production, cinematography, technical aspects, and reviews.
Covers the full spectrum of gender-engaged scholarship inside and outside academia.
Articles from international medical journals. Includes Medline (1966-) and PreMedline (recent articles that are not yet fully indexed).
Index of scholarly journals, books, conference papers, and other non-periodical content sources.
Google Scholar can also be a great place to find scholarly articles that are available through the Libraries databases . Some articles may not be available freely through Google Scholar or via the Libraries databases. If that is the case, you can order the article through Interlibrary Loan.
Another way to find articles for use in your research paper is by reviewing the bibliographies of articles/books that you have already read. This is a great way to find additional articles that might be relevant to your research. If you have information about an article and you want to see if the libraries has access to this article, you can use Citation Linker.
Citation Linker is a tool where you enter as much of the article as you have and the tool will determine if the libraries has access to the article. This form requires at least one of the following: Journal Title, ISSN, or DOI.
If you have the DOI number only, you can use LibKey to see if the WashU Libraries has access to the article.
A digital object identifier (DOI) is a unique alphanumeric string that provides a persistent link to its location on the internet. The publisher assigns a DOI when an article is published.
