What are research databases?
Murphy Library subscribes to over 300 databases that you can use to find research articles, newspaper sources, book reviews, and other materials to aid your research. In the simplest terms, you can think about a database as a place that stores information organized around a particular topic or subject matter. For example, if you need research articles about climate change you might use our Gale in Context: Environmental Studies database.
On this page, you will find information about how to find a database related to your subject area and how to perform an article search in a database as well as other resources that the librarians here at Murphy think will be helpful to you.
Scholarly vs. Popular Sources
Locating a Subject Database
Keyword Searching & Narrowing Your Search
How to Perform a Keyword Search
To begin searching in the library's databases, you should build a keyword search. The video below explains how keyword searching works and how to revise your search if you aren't finding the results you need. You can use keyword searching in library databases, the library catalog, Google and any other information seeking tool.
Multidisciplinary Databases
These databases may also include related articles.
- Academic Search Ultimate (EBSCO) @ EBSCOhost This link opens in a new window
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A comprehensive database containing full-text academic journals, magazines and periodicals plus reports, books and videos covering virtually every discipline. Includes thousands of English-language and native-language full-text journals from Asia, Oceania, Europe and Latin America. - Gale Academic OneFile This link opens in a new window
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This database indexes and provides selected full text for thousands of scholarly journals and other authoritative sources across many academic disciplines. Subjects covered include the physical sciences, technology, medicine, social sciences, the arts, and literature. - Gale General OneFile This link opens in a new window
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Extensive coverage of news, magazine, and periodical articles across a wide range of general interest topics and academic disciplines. Also includes reference, newspaper, and audio content. - Gale In Context: College This link opens in a new window
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Interdisciplinary, topically-arranged content that covers the humanities and social sciences, literature, science, U.S. history, and world history. Includes full-text newspapers and periodicals like The Economist, The New York Times, National Geographic, Newsweek, Popular Science, Smithsonian, and more. Also includes hundreds of thousands of images, videos, and audio selections that include archival film clips, broadcast video, BBC News, New York Times video, and NPR. - JSTOR This link opens in a new window
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An archive of more than 4,600 scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences from nearly 1,200 publishers. Thanks to both the Murphy Library Endowment Fund and UWL Student Differential Tuition for providing access to the JSTOR Arts & Sciences XV collection. - MasterFILE Complete (EBSCO) @ EBSCOhost This link opens in a new windowThis database offers an extensive collection of popular full-text magazines, reference books and other highly-regarded sources from the world's leading publishers. Covering virtually every general interest subject area, it also includes an extensive collection of photos, maps and flags.
- Web of Science Core Collection (Clarivate) @ Web of Science This link opens in a new windowFully covers over 21,000 scholarly journals across 254 academic disciplines. Comprised of Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Arts & Humanities Citation Index (AHCI), and more. Specializes in cited reference searching for comprehensive identification of later works that have cited an article published in one of the covered journals. Coverage: 1900-present.
Popular Databases at Murphy Library
These databases are great starting points for your research. For excellent subject-specific resources, please browse our Library Guides.
- Reference Universe (Paratext) This link opens in a new windowA single, centralized access point to much of Murphy Library's reference collection (online and print subject encyclopedias, handbooks, compendia), allowing you to deeply search within the collection through tables of contents and actual back of the book indexes. Link directly into the work if available online. Covers 5,400 titles held by Murphy Library, and about 45,000 reference works total. Tutorial video
- Academic Search Ultimate (EBSCO) @ EBSCOhost This link opens in a new window
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A comprehensive database containing full-text academic journals, magazines and periodicals plus reports, books and videos covering virtually every discipline. Includes thousands of English-language and native-language full-text journals from Asia, Oceania, Europe and Latin America. - CQ Researcher (CQ Press) This link opens in a new windowFull-text articles on the most current and controversial issues of the day with complete summaries, insight into two sides of the issues, bibliographies and more.
- Films On Demand (Infobase) This link opens in a new windowFilms On Demand is an online video platform that provides access to a dynamic collection of over 35,000 titles. Special features allow users to organize and bookmark clips, share playlists, and create personalized folders.
- Gale Academic OneFile This link opens in a new window
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This database indexes and provides selected full text for thousands of scholarly journals and other authoritative sources across many academic disciplines. Subjects covered include the physical sciences, technology, medicine, social sciences, the arts, and literature. - MasterFILE Complete (EBSCO) @ EBSCOhost This link opens in a new windowThis database offers an extensive collection of popular full-text magazines, reference books and other highly-regarded sources from the world's leading publishers. Covering virtually every general interest subject area, it also includes an extensive collection of photos, maps and flags.
- Newspaper Source Plus (EBSCO) @ EBSCOhost This link opens in a new window500+ U.S. newspapers including USA Today, The Washington Post, Star Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Wisconsin State Journal (Madison), Capital Times (Madison), Post-Bulletin (Rochester); 600+ international newspapers; news transcripts from ABC News (American), CBC (Canadian), CBS News, CNBC, CNN, MSNBC, PBS; Real-Time News from AP, CNN, PR Newswire, UPI
Pro/Con Databases
- Points of View Reference Center (EBSCO) This link opens in a new windowThis is a full-text database that includes essays covering multiple sides of a current issue. 343 topics are included, each with an overview (objective background/description), point (argument),counterpoint (opposing argument), and Critical Thinking Guide. In addition to essays, articles from political magazines different points of view, newspapers, radio & TV news transcripts, primary source documents and reference books are included.
- Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new window
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Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center brings together pro and con viewpoint articles from the Greenhaven Press book series, reference articles that provide context, full-text magazines, academic journals, and newspapers, hundreds of primary source documents, government and organizational statistics, multimedia, including images and podcasts, links to hand-selected web sites, and more. In addition, it has thousands of links to reviewed and subject-indexed websites and podcasts, including weekly presidential addresses and premier NPR programs. Access to this resource is made possible by UWL Student Differential Tuition. - CQ Researcher (CQ Press) This link opens in a new windowFull-text articles on the most current and controversial issues of the day with complete summaries, insight into two sides of the issues, bibliographies and more.