Find Journal Articles
- MLA International Bibliography with Full TextBest database for finding journal articles, books, and essay collections in the fields of international languages, literature, linguistics, film, and media studies.
- Literature Criticism OnlineLess user friendly than MLA, but it can be a good database for finding overviews of major authors, as well as book reviews and critical essays that are hard to find anywhere else.
- Project MuseFull text database of important humanities journals, including topics related to literature and culture.
- JSTORFull text database of back issues of important journals in the humanities, including topics related to literature and culture. Does not contain any issues from the last 5 years.
- HAPI: Hispanic American Periodicals Index
HAPI Online combines current information about Latin America with in-depth coverage from 1970 to the present.
- Clase and Periodica Index of Latin American journals
Latin American journals specializing in social sciences, humanities, science and technology.
- DialnetPublicly available database of Spanish-language social science journals, maintained by the University of Rioja
- ARTFL: American & French Research on the Treasury of the French LanguageARTFL is a database of classic works of French literature from the medieval period to present.
- PerseePersee provides open access to back files of more than 150 French scientific journals in the field of the humanities. Journals have moving walls of different lengths that block access to recent issues. Persee has advanced functionalities which facilitate and enhance use of the portal’s resources.
- Bibliographie der deutschen Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft (BDSL)
BDSL is a comprehensive bibliography and index of publications on German language and literary studies dating from 1985 to the present. It includes around 500,000 citations to monographs, journal articles, reviews, collected studies, and newspapers.
- American Bibliography of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ABSEEES)
American Bibliography of Slavic & Eastern European Studies (ABSEES) is being renamed American Bibliography of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ABSEEES) to more accurately represent the content within the product. This bibliographic resource provides information on East-Central Europe and the former Soviet Union, with a vast collection of indexed sources, published in the United States and Canada. Coverage for ABSEEES ranges from 1989 to the present.
Tips for Searching the MLA Database
Use these methods to get better search results in the MLA Bibliography.
1. Use the database's standard spellings for names and titles
When looking for information on a particular author, make sure you are using the most database's standard spelling. For example, if you do a search for Leo Tolstoy in the MLA database and click on a record, you'll see that the official spelling in the database for his name is Tolstoĭ, Lev Nikolaevich. Using this spelling will give you more results. The same is true for titles, especially those that have been translated in multiple ways.
2. Use the database's standard Subject Terms
Searching for topics can be complicated simply because of all the different words that authors might use to describe the same concept. For example, articles about gender roles in Tolstoy's novels might use very different vocabulary, like gender, women, or masculinity, and these terms might appear in multiple languages. Using more of the database's subject terms, such as marriage or female characters, can help you get more results.
3. Be creative about combining terms
Just because your first search doesn't give you any results doesn't mean there aren't books or articles on your topic. Beware of expecting to find one source that covers all aspects of your topic. For example, even if you are looking for articles on a specific novel with a specific topical focus like gender, you might find one source that focuses in depth on the work and another source about the author that shares your focus.
Use Subject Headings to find books with literary criticism
Use subject headings to search more powerfully in the library catalog.
You can think of subject headings like "tags" that the library uses to identify works on a common topic. For example, one of the easiest way to find books of literary criticism about Miguel Cervantes is to do a subject search using the catalog's official subject heading:
Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de, 1547-1616 -- Criticism and interpretation
Start your search with the name of the author and add words for criticism or interpretation. For example:
You can also search by country and century. For example:
French fiction - 19th century - History and criticism
German literature - History and criticism
Once you've found a book that's relevant to your topic, click on one of the Subject headings/Topics in the record (for example, "War in Literature") and it will take you to more relevant books.
Follow the Scholarly Conversation
The more advanced you get in researching literary topics, the more you'll begin to see that you are not just looking for individual sources, but trying to follow the scholarly conversation: how scholars have addressed your topic and responded to one another over time. There are a few ways to get a sense of the scholarly conversation.
1. Start with an introductory work or encyclopedia (see the Background Info page) that can map out your topic and guide you to the most important secondary sources.
2. When you've found one useful source, use its bibliography to find even more sources. Let the work already done by experts make your own job easier!
3. Use the "Cited by" feature in Google Scholar to see which sources are most cited and to find out which other books and articles have cited them.
