Background and Reference Sources
Multidisciplinary Databases
Multidisciplinary databases provide access to a wide range of subjects in one interface, meaning you can search for information on a topic from the perspectives of several disciplines. This type of database is great for the beginning stages of your research or for understanding social and cultural context on your topic.
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Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Full text of thousands of academic journals, magazines, and other publications across a wide range of disciplines, including the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and more.
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ProQuest Central This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive, multidisciplinary database offering resources across business and economics (including market, country, and industry reports), health and medical sciences, social sciences, education, science and technology, arts and humanities, language and literature, history, religion and philosophy, performing and visual arts, communication studies, psychology, public and international affairs, film studies, music, and news and world affairs. It includes access to scholarly journals, market research, trade and professional journals, general interest magazines, and global news sources.
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Wiley Online Library This link opens in a new window
Full text of over 1,600 e-journals covering life, health and physical sciences, social science, and the humanities. Coverage is generally 1997-present. The library does not license all content offered on the Wiley site. The 'Full Access' lock icon denotes content available to UM users. Non-licensed content may be requested through Interlibrary loan or Article Galaxy Scholar (AGS) services. See more… for details.
Reference and Web Sources
Reference sources provide broad overviews of topics, and are a great place to start your search for information. These types of sources include encyclopedias, dictionaries, textbooks, handbooks, books, and websites that broadly explore a subject.
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Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Continuously updated full text collection of over 1,300 general and subject specific titles from 121 publishers with particular emphasis on encyclopedias, dictionaries, atlases, and reference handbooks.
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Google ScholarScholarly literature across many disciplines and sources.
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Science.govGateway to U.S. government science information.
Specialized Databases
As you narrow down your research topic, specialized databases can offer more in-depth explorations of your area of interest. Try using these databases once you have a list of keywords you'd like to use.
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ACM Digital Library This link opens in a new window
Bibliographic information, abstracts, reviews, and the full text for articles published in ACM periodicals and proceedings since its founding in 1947, together with selected works published by affiliated organizations.
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ArXiv.orgResearch papers and preprints in physics, mathematics, computer science, nonlinear sciences, and quantitative biology.
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CiteSeer This link opens in a new window
Full text of over 10 million academic documents, journals, and papers, primarily in the fields of computer science and information science.
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MathSciNet This link opens in a new window
The electronic version of Mathematical Reviews, it contains full text reviews and indexes mathematical sciences journals, books, and conference proceedings from the early 1800s-present. Produced by the American Mathematical Society.
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Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive research platform that indexes high-quality, peer-reviewed journals across disciplines including science, social science, arts, and humanities. It offers powerful tools for citation analysis and enables users to track scholarly references from 1900 to the present.
