General Article Databases
Now that you know the types of articles you need, you can choose a database, also known as a periodical index, to find them. Databases are collections of thousands of articles organized by subject. The Libraries have hundreds of databases covering every academic discipline. Some are multi-disciplinary, covering a broad range of subjects and including popular and scholarly sources, and others are subject-specific, and include scholarly and specialized articles. A complete list is available at Find Articles.
The following multi-disciplinary databases are good places to start your research:
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Academic Search Complete
A multidisciplinary index to articles in more than 10,900 journals and other publications in English, Spanish, German, French, Italian and Portuguese; full-text is available for over 5300 journals.
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Google Scholar
Lists journal articles, books, preprints, and technical reports in many subject areas (though more specialized article databases may cover any given field more completely). Some listings include links to related articles and to other sources that cite the item. Includes content from free resources (such as ArXiv.org and university websites) as well as subscription resources (such as electronic journals from selected publishers). Use the UC-eLinks option, when available, to find the UCB access to a publication.
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JSTOR
Includes over 1000 scholarly journals with access to more than 2 million articles. JSTOR is an archive which means that current issues (generally the most recent 3-5 years) of the journals are not yet available.
Google Scholar UC-eLinks access
Accessing full-text content from off campus using Google Scholar
Step 1: Set up your proxy server access by following the directions at http://proxy.lib.berkeley.edu/. When you get to a point where you are accessing resources that the Library pays for, you will be prompted for your CalNet ID and password. For more help see: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/doemoff/tutorials/proxy.html
Step 2: Change your “Scholar Preferences.” Access these by clicking on the link next to the search box.
Step 3: In search box next to "Library Links," type in University of California Berkeley and click on “Find Library”
Step 4: Check box next to "University of California Berkeley - UC-eLinks
Step 5: Click on "Save Preferences" at bottom of page
Specialized Databases
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Sociological Abstracts
Indexes over 1,900 journals, books, dissertations, and reviews in the social sciences on sociological topics as well as selected anthropology, criminology, demography, law, social psychology, and urban development.(Search all CSA/Illumina Social Sciences databases.)
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Family and Society Studies Worldwide
Indexes books, scholarly journals, magazines, reports, proceedings, statistics, dissertations, and websites worldwide related to social science research about the family and society. Relates to the print counterparts, Inventory of Marriage & Family Literature and Australian Family & Society Abstracts.
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Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management
Indexes over 6,000 journals, conference proceedings, reports, monographs, books, and government publications covering agricultural biotechnology, air quality, aquatic pollution, bacteriology, ecology, energy resources, environmental biotechnology, environmental engineering, environmental impact statements, hazardous waste, industrial hygiene, microbiology, pollution, risk assessment, safety science, toxicology, water pollution, waste management, and water resource issues.
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Index to Legal Periodicals and Books/Index to Legal Periodicals Retrospective
Index to Legal Periodicals and Books (1981 - present) indexes approximately 1000 legal journals, yearbooks, institutes, bar association journals, university publications and law reviews, and government publications.
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Criminology: A SAGE Full-Text Collection
Includes the full-text of 23 journals published by SAGE and participating societies, some journals going back 23 years. Covers such subjects as Criminal Justice, Juvenile Delinquency, Corrections, Forensic Psychology, and Family and Domestic Violence.
Where's the PDF?
Many article databases contain information about articles (citations or abstracts), not the entire text of the article. Once you've used an article database to find articles on your topic, you may need to use this button:
in order to locate and read the full text of the article. The UC-eLinks button appears in nearly all the databases available from the UCB Library website.
UC-eLinks will link you to the online full text of an article if UCB has paid for online access; otherwise, UC-eLinks will help you locate a print copy on the shelf in the library. If UCB doesn't own the article in print or online format, UC-eLinks can also help you order a copy from another library.
For more information, watch this video tutorial (about 4 min.)
You can also set up UC-eLinks to work with Google Scholar. For more information, watch this video tutorial (about 2 min.)