LibGuides: English Literature: Indexes & databases

General Literary Indexes & Databases

Generally speaking you can use OMNI All-in-One Search to find both books and journal articles. However there may be occasions when you wish to search inside a discipline specific periodical index. For instance you may wish to use discipline specific thesauri or specialized database fields if you are researching a complex question or performing a comprehensive literature review. Periodical databases bring together a number of different online journals and other resources into one search engine. Use the following discipline-specific tools to find citations, abstracts and/or full text articles, reports and other resources on your literary topic. Both scholarly and popular articles may be included. If you need help, we have a handy guide on how to find journal articles.

MLA Bibliography
Produced by the Modern Language Association (MLA), the MLA International Bibliography is the definitive index for the study of language, literature, linguistics, rhetoric and composition, folklore, and film, covering scholarly publications from the early 20th century to the present. International in scope, it includes citations to journal articles, books, articles in books, series, translations, scholarly editions, websites, and dissertations, with links to full text in JSTOR, Project MUSE, and other resources. The database also includes the MLA Directory of Periodicals and the MLA Thesaurus, a proprietary, searchable collection of thousands of subject terms, and personal names used in indexing the bibliography.
Literature Online
Contains a fully searchable library of more than 350,000 works of English and American poetry, drama and prose, 333 full-text literature journals, and other key criticism and reference resources. Includes the MLA Bibliography and the Annual Bibliography of English Literature.
Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature
Contains 880,000 records, covering monographs, periodical articles, critical editions of literary works, book reviews and collections of essays published anywhere in the world from 1920 onwards.
Literature Resource Center
A literature reference database containing biographical, bibliographical, and critical content. Provides information on literary figures writing in such genres as fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama, history, journalism, and more. The information is compiled from Contemporary Authors Online, Contemporary Literary Criticism Select, and Dictionary of Literary Biography Online. Covers all time periods.
Literature Criticism Online
Provides a range of modern and historical views on authors and their works. Includes scholarly and popular literary commentary from broadsheets, pamphlets, encyclopedias, books and journals. Comprised of nine individual Gale series: Contemporary Literary Criticism, Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism, Shakespeare Criticism, Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800, Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism, Poetry Criticism and Short Story Criticism.

Interdisciplinary Indexes and Databases

Use the following databases to search for some articles by literary scholars as well as from scholars across other relevant disciplines, such as the humanities, theatre studies, art, film, philosophy and history. Note: these databases will have some coverage of journals of literary criticism, but will not have the same depth of coverage as the databases listed in the preceding section.

JSTOR
Used by millions for research, teaching, and learning. With more than a thousand academic journals and over one million images, letters, and other primary documents, JSTOR is a trusted sources for academic content.
Humanities International Index
Covers over 1000 journals published from 1975 to the present, including many smaller journals and publications unavailable in other reference sources. Provides cover-to-cover indexing and abstracting of on-going journal content, including coverage of all original creative works, such as poetry and fiction.
Humanities Index
Indexes over 320 humanities journals and weekly magazines published in the UK and other English speaking countries, as well as several newspapers published in the UK.
Canadian Business & Current Affairs Database (CBCA Complete)
A useful database for research topics related to all things Canadian - including Canadian literature. Coverage is from 1982 - present.
Oxford Scholarly Editions Online
Offers a rich collection of 950 scholarly editions that consist of primary material. This resources covers materials published between 1485 and 1901 and in a variety of subject areas including philosophy, literature, theology, linguistics, medicine and more.

Scopus This link opens in a new window
Scopus is one of the the world’s largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature, including scientific journals, books and conference proceedings, covering research topics across all scientific and technical disciplines, ranging from medicine and social sciences to arts and humanities. Further, with smart tools to track, analyze and visualize research, Scopus empowers you to advance your science beyond the text. For tutorials see Scopus Help.

Web of Science
Indexes 8,500 research journals across the Humanities, Social Sciences and Sciences. Includes most major titles in Historical Studies. Search for articles by subject, author, journal, and author address as well as for articles that cite a known author or work (citation searching). Humanities coverage is from 1975 - present.
Google Scholar
A subset of regular Google, it allows users to search for articles from all disciplines. Content is heavily skewed towards scholarly and scientific information; however, humanities and social science content is present, as is non-scholarly material.

Specialized Indexes and Databases

Listed below are indexes specific to particular groups of people, and/or specific time periods, with content relevant to the study of English Literature.

Bibliography of Native North Americans
Bibliography of Native North Americans (BNNA) is a bibliographic database covering all aspects of native North American culture, history, and life. This resource covers a wide range of topics including archaeology, multicultural relations, gaming, governance, legend, and literacy. BNNA contains more than 80,000 citations for books, essays, journal articles, and government documents of the United States and Canada.
more...less...
Dates of coverage for included content range from the sixteenth century to the present. The database is an essential research tool for anthropologists, educators, historians, political scientists, sociologists, psychologists, legal and medical researchers, linguists, theologians, ethnobotanists, and policy makers. BNNA will appeal to anyone interested in exploring the contributions, struggles, and issues surrounding North America's indigenous peoples [Publisher]
C19: The Nineteenth Century Index
C19 is exactly what scholars have been waiting for—an organizing force for the research collections of the 19th century that supports virtually every academic discipline. A super-index to more that 16.8 million documents that includes the Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals, Poole’s Index to Periodical Literature, and the Nineteenth Century Short Title Catalogue, C19 is a must for identifying new research sources.
more...less...
It also links to other 19th century full-text sources in your library collection such as the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, British Periodicals, American Periodical Series Online, and Periodicals Archive Online. Much of this content goes un-indexed in various other sources; some is unique to C19.
Iter Bibliography: Gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance
Iter's bibliography covers all literature pertaining to the Middle Ages and Renaissance (400-1700). Citations for journal articles, reviews, review articles, bibliographies, catalogues, abstracts and discographies are included. Also included are citations for monographs, and material published in monographs and collections of essays. Not all articles are in English.
International Medieval Bibliography
Comprising citations to 300,000 articles, review articles, scholarly notes and similar literature on all aspects of medieval studies, the IMB offers an unparalleled tool for medievalists to identify the contents of current work published throughout Europe, the Americas and the Asia-Pacific region.
Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index
Scholars from Haverford College have compiled this database that covers journal articles, book reviews, and essays in books about women, sexuality, and gender during the Middle Ages.
Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Database
Covers all aspects of science fiction, fantasy, horror, supernatural and weird fiction. History, criticism, commentary, fan writings and some reviews are included. Does not include book reviews. Coverage is from 1878 - present.

Search Tips

When searching online, various words are used to help broaden or narrow your search. Here are a few tips you should know before searching any academic database:

Boolean operators: Most internet and electronic databases follow the rules of boolean logic. Boolean logic refers to the relationships (connections or differences) between different search terms. The most common boolean operators are:

AND - used to narrow a search and establish more relevant results by linking keywords together (e.g. "behavioural" and "psychology").

OR - broadens a search and get more results. Typically used for synonyms and words with variant spellings (e.g. "self-actualization" and "self-identity").

NOT - use to narrow a search and get more relevant results (e.g. "behaviouralism" not "humanism").

Truncation: used to find similar words with different endings

e.g. human* searches "human and humans"

e.g. educat* searches "education", "educate", "educational" etc

asterisk (*) searches for various different endings of a word in most databases (including York University), however LexisNexis uses an exlamation mark (!).

Other Tips

Advanced Search - this option is available on most databases, and allows you to specialize your search based on documents (books, articles, video etc), date, geographic location, language, etc.

Quotation Marks - using quotation marks will allow you to search for exact phrases. For example, searching "mental impairment" will only retreive searches with both "mental" and "impairment" together in that order.

Refine Search - many online databases allow you to specify your search criteria after selecting your keywords and clicking on search.

Finding a Specific Journal - if you know the name of the journal you are looking for, type it in the library catalogue, then select "Periodical Title", then hit "go".