Research Guides: Introduction to Research: Using Databases

Using Databases

What are databases?

Databases are collections of all different kinds of data, information, and resources. Some databases hold a more generalized types of information, while others are far more specific to certain disciplines or types of information.

How do I use one?

To access a database through the University Libraries, begin on the Libraries Homepage.
Below the main search bar, click "Search Databases."
On that page, use any of the 3 gray fields to search or browse different databases.
Once you've entered a database, use the same or similar strategies that you'd use in the main library search bar!

For a step-by-step guide on using databases, watch the video tutorial below!

Most Popular Databases

Business Source Ultimate This link opens in a new window
Provides full text for more than 2,800 business publications. Sources include academic journals, trade publications, magazines, newspapers, industry and product reports, monographs, SWOT analyses, and more. Addresses all subject areas related to business. Coverage 1965-, or first published issue, some as far back as 1922.
CINAHL Complete This link opens in a new window
CINAHL Complete covers nursing, allied health, biomedical and consumer health journals, publications of the American Nursing Association, and the National League for Nursing. Includes abstracts of journal articles, books, dissertations, and proceedings. Full text is included for nursing journals, newsletters, standards of practice, practice acts, government publications, research instruments and patient education material.
To learn how to use CINAHL Complete, watch our video series.
Communication Source This link opens in a new window
Indexes journals (and provides some full text) of scholarly journals covering many aspects of Communication & Mass Media Studies
CQ Press Electronic Library This link opens in a new window
Access to the CQ Researcher with reports covering current controversial topics from the news; and CQ Weekly with coverage of U.S. Congressional bills, votes, committees, etc.
EBSCO Discovery Service This link opens in a new window
EBSCO Discovery Service provides users with an easy, yet powerful means of accessing all of an institution's information resources through a single search. This is achieved by harvesting metadata from both internal (library) and external (database vendors) sources, and creating a pre-indexed service of unprecedented size and speed. (All federated databases are listed individually in Databases Search as well.)
Education Full Text This link opens in a new window
Indexes an international range of English-language periodicals and books in the field of education, including several not included in ERIC. Coverage: Indexing 1929- ; with abstracts, 1994- ; select fulltext, 1996-.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
The JSTOR database consists of complete backfiles of core scholarly journals in all disciplines. Coverage: varies--going back to first year of publication and coming up to 3-5 years ago. See the Project Muse database for scholarly articles from within the past 3-5 years.
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Nexis Uni features more than 15,000 news, business and legal sources from LexisNexis®—including U.S. Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1790—with an intuitive interface that offers quick discovery across all content types, personalization features such as Alerts and saved searches and a collaborative workspace with shared folders and annotated documents.
OmniFile Full Text Mega This link opens in a new window
Type the title or author into the search field and select SU Subject from the drop-down menu. Under the heading Limit Your Results, select Book Review in the Document Type box. Click Search to see citations and full text to reviews.
Opposing Viewpoints in Context This link opens in a new window
Opposing Viewpoints in Context covers current social issues, helping students research, analyze and organize a broad variety of data for conducting research, completing writing assignments, preparing for debates, creating presentations and more. It includes a streamlined interface, media-rich topic pages, and curriculum-focused tools that help students explore issues from all perspectives. Resources are divided into topics which contains numerous full text pieces further categorized by the nature of their material: viewpoints (essays), reference, statistics, magazines and newspapers, images, primary documents and web sites.
Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Provides access to the full text of more than 200 scholarly journals in many disciplines, including: African studies, anthropology, education, history, music, literature, philosophy, psychology, sociology, and more. Coverage: varies, typically the past 3-5 years.
PsycInfo This link opens in a new window
Citations to and summaries of journal articles, book chapters, books, and technical reports, as well as citations to dissertations, in psychology, plus psychological aspects in related disciplines (medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education, pharmacology, physiology, linguistics, anthropology, business, and law). Journal coverage, spanning 1887-present, includes international material selected from more than 1,300 periodicals written in over 25 languages. Coverage: 1632-present.

Advanced Search Strategies: PsychInfo from University Libraries on Vimeo.
WorldCat This link opens in a new window
Search for books at libraries throughout the world. You can order them through InterLibrary Loan.