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List of academic databases and search engines

This page contains a representative list of major databases and search engines useful in an academic setting for finding and accessing articles in academic journals, or in repositories, archives, or other collections of scientific and other articles. As the distinction between a database and a search engine is unclear for these complex document retrieval systems, see:

  • the general list of search engines for all-purpose search engines that can be used for academic purposes
  • bibliographic databases for information about databases giving bibliographic information about finding books and journal articles.

Note that "free" or "subscription" can refer both to the availability of the database or of the journal articles included. This has been indicated as precisely as possible in the lists below.

Name Discipline(s) Description Access Cost Provider(s)
Academic Search Multidisciplinary Several versions are available: Complete, Elite, Premier, and Alumni Edition[1] Subscription EBSCO Publishing [2]
Aerospace & High Technology Database Aerospace, Aeronautics, Astronautics Subscription ProQuest[3]
AJOL: African Journals OnLine Multidisciplinary African journals Free abstracts; Subscription full-text African Journals OnLine[4]
AgeLine Sociology, Gerontology Includes information on aging-related topics, including economics, public health and policy. Subscription EBSCO Publishing[6]
AGRICOLA: Agricultural Online Access Agriculture Free & Subscription Produced by the United States National Agricultural Library. Free access provided by NAL[5]. Subscription access provided by Proquest[6], OVID[7].
AGRIS: Agricultural database Agriculture Coverage: agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, aquatic sciences and fisheries, human nutrition, extension literature from over 100 participating countries.

Material includes unique grey literature such as unpublished scientific and technical reports, theses, conference papers, government publications, and more.

 Free Produced by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. http://agris.fao.org AGRIS
Airiti Inc Multidisciplinary China, Taiwan. Subscription Airiti Inc[8]
Analytical Abstracts Chemistry Subscription Royal Society of Chemistry[9]
Analytical sciences digital library Analytical sciences Free National Science Digital Library and the Analytical Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society[10]
Anthropological Index Online Anthropology Index only (no abstracts or full-text). Free Royal Anthropological Institute [11]
Anthropological Literature Anthropology Free to Harvard faculty, staff and students. Subscription for non-Harvard access. Maintained by Harvard University. Non-Harvard access provided by OCLC[12]
Arachne Archaeology, Art history German Language Free German Archaeological Institute & the University of Cologne, administered by Reinhard Foertsch[13]
Arnetminer Computer Science A free online service used to index and search academic social networks Free Tsinghua University[14]
Arts & Humanities Citation Index Arts, Humanities Part of Web of Science Subscription Thomson Reuters[15]
arXiv Physics, Mathematics, Computer science, Nonlinear sciences, Quantitative biology and Statistics Free Cornell University[16]
Association for Computing Machinery Digital Library Computer Science, Engineering Subscription Association for Computing Machinery[17]
Astrophysics Data System Astrophysics, Geophysics, Physics Free Harvard University[18]
ATLA Religion Database Religious studies Provides information on topics such as biblical studies, world religions, church history, and religion in social issues Subscription [19]
AULIMP: Air University Library's Index to Military Periodicals Military Science Free Air University[20]
BASE: Bielefeld Academic Search Engine Multidisciplinary Free Bielefeld University [21]
Beilstein database Organic chemistry Subscription Elsevier [22]
Biological Abstracts Biology A complete collection of bibliographic references covering life science and biomedical research literature published from more than 4,000 journals internationally. Subscription Available from Thomson Reuters[23]
BioOne Biology, Ecology, and Environmental Science An aggregation of over 78,000 peer-reviewed, full-text articles on current research in Biodiversity Conservation, Biology, Ecology, Plant Sciences, Entomology, Ornithology, and Zoology. Free Abstract & References, Subscription Collections, and an Open Access Collection Available from BioOne[24]
Bioinformatic Harvester Biology, Bioinformatics A meta search engine for 50 major bioinformatic databases and projects. Free Available from Liebel-Lab [7] KIT Karlsruhe Institute of Technology [8]
Book Review Index Online Book reviews Subscription Thomson Gale[25]
Books In Print Books Subscription R.R. Bowker[26]
Chemical Abstracts Service Chemistry Subscription American Chemical Society[27]
ChemXSeer Chemistry Free Pennsylvania State University[28]
Chinese Social Science Citation Index Social sciences Subscription Nanjing University[29]
Cochrane Library Medicine, Healthcare Includes reviews of research to promote evidence-based healthcare. Subscription Wiley Interscience[30]
CINAHL: Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Nursing, Allied Health Subscription EBSCO[31]
CHBD: Circumpolar Health Bibliographic Database Medicine Free University of Calgary[32]
Citebase Search Mathematics, Computer science, Physics Semi-autonomous citation index of free online research Free University of Southampton[33]
CiteSeer Computer Science No longer being updated. See CiteSeerX. Free Pennsylvania State University[34]
CiteSeerX Computer Science Free Pennsylvania State University[35]
CogPrints: Cognitive Sciences Eprint Archives Science (General) Free University of Southampton[36]
The Collection of Computer Science Bibliographies Computer science Free Alf-Christian Achilles[37]
Compendex Engineering Electronic version of Engineering Index. Subscription Elsevier[38]
Current Index to Statistics Statistics Limited free search[39] Subscription American Statistical Association and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics[40]
Current Contents Multidisciplinary Part of Web of Knowledge. Contains 7 discipline-specific subsets. Subscription Thompson Reuters[41]
Directory of Open Access Journals Journals Free Lund University[42]
DBLP Computer science Comprehensive list of papers from major computer science conferences and journals Free University of Trier, Germany
EconLit Economics The American Economic Association's electronic database, the world's foremost source of references to economic literature. Subscription Produced by the American Economic Association [43]. Available from CSA, DIALOG, OCLC, OVID, and AEA.[44]
EMBASE Biomedicine, Pharmacology Biomedical database with a strong focus on drug and pharmaceutical research. Subscription Elsevier[45]
ERIC: Educational Resource Information Center Education Education literature and resources. Provides access to over 1.3 million records dating back to 1966. Free Produced by the United States Department of Education[46]. Also available by subscription from OCLC, CSA.
Food Science and Technology Abstracts Food science, Food technology, Nutrition The world's leading database of information on food science, food technology and nutrition Subscription Produced by the International Food Information Service. Access provided by OVID, Web of Knowledge, Dialog, DataStar and STN International[47]
FOREASt: Free Open Resources for East Asian Studies East Asian Studies Covers over 300 free and open access resources for studying China, Japan, and Korea, including online databases, digital collections, and open access journals. Free Internet East Asian Library[48]
Fuse Business research papers A business research engine, indexing 728 open-access ejournals and similar open sources. Does not search press releases or trade magazines. Free Fuse[49]
GENESIS Women's history Descriptions of women's history collections from sources in the UK, as well as women's history websites. Free London Metropolitan University[50]
German Education Index Education A bibliographical database that provides comprehensive references to all areas of education. Free Coordinating Office of the German Education Index[51]
Google Scholar Multidisciplinary Free Google[52]
GoPubMed Medicine Free Transinsight GmbH [53]
HubMed Medicine An alternative interface to the PubMed medical literature database Free Alf Eaton[54]
IEEE Xplore Computer Science, Engineering, Electronics Subscription IEEE [55]
Information Bridge: Department of Energy Scientific and Technical Information Energy 1991'present. Free United States Department of Energy[56]
Informit Multidisciplinary Australasian aggregator of bibliographic databases and journals RMIT Publishing[57]
Infotopia Multidisciplinary United States search engine of academic sites approved by librarians, teachers, and consortia]] Free Dr. Michael Bell[58]
IngentaConnect Multidisciplinary Free searching; Subscription full-text Ingenta[59]
Inspec Physics, Engineering, Computer Science The leading bibliographic database providing abstracts and indexing to the world's scientific and technical papers in physics, electrical engineering, electronics, communications, control engineering, computing, information technology, manufacturing, production, and mechanical engineering. Subscription IET[60]
International Directory of Philosophy Philosophy Contains information on university philosophy departments and programs, philosophical societies, research centers, journals, and philosophy publishers around the world. Subscription Philosophy Documentation Center[61]
Intute Multidisciplinary Intute serves students, teachers, and researchers in UK further education and higher education, offering a selection of around 300,000 academic websites which have been hand-picked and described by subject specialists. Free Intute[62]
Intwine Arts and Humanities Allows the searching of the full-text of all academic websites catalogued by the Intute arts and humanities service from 2005-2010. Free Intwine[63]
JournalSeek Multidisciplinary open access journals in different language Links to journal's home page and publisher JournalSeek[64]
JSTOR: Journal Storage Multidisciplinary (Historical) Subscription JSTOR[65]
JURN Arts and Humanities Freely search and retrieve the full-text of over 3,600 scholarly ejournals in the arts and humanities. Free JURN[66]
MathSciNet Mathematics Available in print as Mathematical Reviews Subscription American Mathematical Society[67]
MedlinePlus Medicine Free Produced by the United States National Library of Medicine, the United States National Institutes of Health, and the United States Department of Health and Human Services[68]
Merck Index Chemistry, Biology, Pharmacology Also available in print. Subscription Produced by Merck & Co.. Available from CambridgeSoft Corporation, Dialog, Knovel, MedicinesComplete, STN International[69]
Meteorological and Geoastrophysical Abstracts Meteorology, Astrophysics, Geology Subscription Produced by the American Meteorological Society. Available from Dialog[70] and CSA[71].
Microsoft Academic Search Computer Science and a limited extent on information science Provides many innovative ways to explore scientific papers, conferences, journals, and authors[72] Free Microsoft
NBER: National Bureau of Economic Research Economics Free National Bureau of Economic Research[73]
National Criminal Justice Reference Service[74] Criminology, Sociology Abstracts of scholarly journal articles, agency and NGO reports, and conference proceedings Free United States Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs[75]
National Diet Library Collection Multidisciplinary Japanese. Catalog for the National Library of Japan. National Diet Library[76]
OAIster Multidisciplinary Free University of Michigan [77]
Open J-Gate Journals Index of open access journals Free Informatics India Ltd.[78]
OpenSIGLE Grey literature Indexes European grey literature. Free Institut de l'Information Scientifique et Technique[79]
Philosophy Documentation Center eCollection Applied ethics, Philosophy, Religious studies Journals, series, conference proceedings, and other works from several countries. Subscription Philosophy Documentation Center[80]
PhilPapers Philosophy Free PhilPapers[81]
POIESIS: Philosophy Online Serials Philosophy journals and series Subscription Philosophy Documentation Center [82] and InteLex Corporation [83]
PsycINFO Psychology The largest resource devoted to peer-reviewed literature in behavioral science and mental health. It contains over 2.6 million citations and summaries dating as far back as the early 19th century. Subscription Produced by the APA[84]. Available from several database vendors.[85]
PubMed Medicine Free National Institutes of Health and the U.S. National Library of Medicine[86]
PubChem Chemistry Free National Center for Biotechnology Information and the U.S. National Library of Medicine [87]
Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature Journals and Magazines Coverage: 1983'present. Subscription H. W. Wilson Company[88]
Reader's Guide Retrospective: 1890 - 1982 Journals and Magazines Subscription H. W. Wilson Company[89]
RePEc: Research Papers in Economics Economics Free Volunteer Collaboration [90]
Rock's Backpages Music Primary documents from the history of Rock and roll Subscription. Limited free access with registration. Backpages Limited[91]
SafetyLit[92] Multidisciplinary Citations and abstracts of journal articles and reports from researchers working in the more than 35 distinct professional disciplines (architecture - zoology) relevant to preventing unintentional injuries, violence, and self-harm. Free San Diego State University Graduate School of Public Health[93] and the World Health Organization, Department of Violence and Injury Prevention[94]
Science Citation Index Science (General) Part of Web of Science Subscription Thompson Reuters[95]
ScienceDirect Multidisciplinary Subscription Elsevier[96]
Scirus Science (General) Free Elsevier[97]
Scopus Multidisciplinary Subscription Elsevier[98]
SeDiCI UNLP [99] Multidisciplinary Journal articles, conferences' proceedings, theses, pictures and all the Intellectual Creation from the National University of La Plata Free National University of La Plata[100]
Social Science Citation Index Social science Part of Web of Science Subscription Thompson Reuters[101]
Socol@r: Socolar Multidisciplinary Scholarly open access resources in different language Free abstracts; Links to full-text Socolar[102]
SSRN: Social Science Research Network Social science Contains an abstracts database and a electronic paper collection, arranged by discipline. Free Social Science Electronic Publishing, Inc.[103]
SSRRN: Social Science Research Resources Network Social science Indexes datasets and statistical codes Free Social Science Research Resources Network =[104]
SPIRES-HEP Physics, (High Energy) Free Stanford Linear Accelerator Center & partners [105]
SpringerLink Multidisciplinary Free abstract & preview; Subscription full-text Springer [106]
TDG Scholar Computer science Free. Aggregates scholarly articles. The Distributed Group[107]
Udemy Multidisciplinary Allows anyone to teach and learn online through videos, webinars, forums, and more. Free Udemy
Ulrich's Periodicals Directory Periodicals] Subscription Proquest[108]
VADLO Biomedicine, Life science Categories indexed: Protocols, Online tools, Powerpoints, Databases, Software Free VADLO[109]
Web of Knowledge Multidisciplinary Includes other products, such as Web of Science, Biological Abstracts & The Zoological Record Subscription Thomson Reuters[110]
Web of Science Science (General) Includes other products, such as Social Science Citation Index & Science Citation Index. Subscription Thomson Reuters[111]
WestLaw Law (General) Subscription Thomson Reuters
WorldCat Multidisciplinary Unified catalog of member libraries' catalogs Free and Subscription versions OCLC[112]
Zasshi Kiji Sakuin: Japanese Periodicals Index Journals Japanese. National Diet Library's Online Catalog[113], MagazinePlus[114], CiNii[115]
Zentralblatt MATH Mathematics First three records free without subscription. Subscription Springer Science+Business Media[116]
The Zoological Record Zoology Unofficial register of scientific names & papers in Zoology. Coverage 1864'present. Subscription Thompson Reuters[117]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ List of EBSCO databases
  2. ^ Academic Search Complete
  3. ^ Aerospace & High Technology Database
  4. ^ African Journals Online (AJOL)
  5. ^ AGRICOLA (NAL Catalog)
  6. ^ AGRICOLA (Proquest)
  7. ^ AGRICOLA (Ovid)
  8. ^ Airiti Inc
  9. ^ Analytical Abstracts
  10. ^ Analytical Sciences Digital Library
  11. ^ Anthropological Index Online
  12. ^ Anthropological Literature
  13. ^ Arachne
  14. ^ Arnetminer.org
  15. ^ Arts & Humanities Citation Index
  16. ^ arXiv.org
  17. ^ Association for Computing Machinery
  18. ^ Astrophysics Data System
  19. ^ ATLA Catalog
  20. ^ AULIMP
  21. ^ BASE
  22. ^ Beilstein database
  23. ^ Biological Abstracts at Thomson Reuters
  24. ^ [1]
  25. ^ Book Review Index Online
  26. ^ Books In Print
  27. ^ Chemical Abstracts Service
  28. ^ ChemXSeer
  29. ^ Chinese Social Science Citation Index (in English)
  30. ^ Cochrane Library
  31. ^ CINAHL
  32. ^ Circumpolar Health Bibliographic Database
  33. ^ CiteBase
  34. ^ CiteSeer
  35. ^ CiteSeerX
  36. ^ Cogprints
  37. ^ The Collection of Computer Science Bibliographies
  38. ^ Compendex
  39. ^ Current Index to Statistics: Limited Free Search
  40. ^ Current Index to Statistics
  41. ^ Current Contents
  42. ^ Directory of Open Access Journals
  43. ^ EconLit
  44. ^ EconLit access providers
  45. ^ EMBASE
  46. ^ ERIC
  47. ^ Food Science and Technology Abstracts
  48. ^ [2]
  49. ^ FUSE
  50. ^ GENESIS
  51. ^ [3]
  52. ^ Google Scholar
  53. ^ GoPubMed
  54. ^ HubMed
  55. ^ IEEE Xplore
  56. ^ Information Bridge
  57. ^ Informit
  58. ^ Infotopia
  59. ^ IngentaConnect
  60. ^ INSPEC
  61. ^ [4]
  62. ^ Intute
  63. ^ Intwine
  64. ^ [5]
  65. ^ JSTOR
  66. ^ JURN
  67. ^ MathSciNet
  68. ^ MedlinePlus
  69. ^ Online versions of the Merck Index
  70. ^ Meteorological and Geoastrophysical Abstracts at DIALOG
  71. ^ Meteorological and Geoastrophysical Abstracts at CSA
  72. ^ Microsoft Academic Search Help
  73. ^ National Bureau of Economic Research
  74. ^ NCJRS Library
  75. ^ NCJRS
  76. ^ Japanese National Diet Library Collection in English
  77. ^ OAIster
  78. ^ Open J-Gate
  79. ^ OpenSIGLE
  80. ^ Philosophy Documentation Center
  81. ^ PhilPapers: Philosophy Online
  82. ^ Philosophy Documentation Center
  83. ^ InteLex Corporation
  84. ^ PsycInfo
  85. ^ PsycINFO vendors list
  86. ^ PubMed
  87. ^ PubChem
  88. ^ Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature
  89. ^ Reader's Guide Retrospective: 1890 - 1982
  90. ^ RePEc
  91. ^ Rock's Backpages
  92. ^ SafetyLit
  93. ^ SDSU-GSPH
  94. ^ World health Organization
  95. ^ Science Citation Index
  96. ^ ScienceDirect
  97. ^ Scirus
  98. ^ Scopus
  99. ^ SeDiCI
  100. ^ UNLP
  101. ^ Social Science Citation Index
  102. ^ Socolar (Socol@r)
  103. ^ Social Science Research Network
  104. ^ SSRRN: Social Science Research Resources Network
  105. ^ SPIRES-HEP
  106. ^ SpringerLink
  107. ^ TDG Scholar
  108. ^ Ulrich's Periodicals Directory
  109. ^ VADLO
  110. ^ Web of Knowledge
  111. ^ Web of Science
  112. ^ WorldCat
  113. ^ Zasshi Kiji Sakuin (at NDL)
  114. ^ Zasshi Kiji Sakuin (at MagazinePlus)
  115. ^ Zasshi Kiji Sakuin (at CiNii)
  116. ^ Zentralblatt MATH
  117. ^ Zoological Record

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