Research Guides: African American Studies: Research

Research Directory

Getting Started

Below are multi-disciplinary databases all covering a wide range of subject areas and resource types. These are great places to start if you are beginning to research a topic or are just exploring. For more subject specific databases, click on the 'Databases & Articles' tab to the left.

Academic Search Complete
Academic Search Complete is the world's most valuable and comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 8,500 full-text periodicals, including more than 7,300 peer-reviewed journals.

In addition to full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for more than 12,500 journals and a total of more than 13,200 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc. The database features PDF content going back as far as 1887, with the majority of full text titles in native (searchable) PDF format. Searchable cited references are provided for more than 1,400 journals.
Google Scholar
Google Scholar provides a broad search that includes selected research papers, professional society and interest group publications, conference reports, book summaries, and media reports. Results include abstracts and citations, drafts, works in progress, reprints, and peer-reviewed journal articles. Not everything in Google Scholar is free. This link to Google Scholar connects you to the full-text of articles provided through RU Library journal subscriptions.
Look for... "Full-Text @ My Library"
Points of View Reference Source
Presents multiple sides of over 500 issues. Helps students assess and develop persuasive arguments and essays, better understand controversial issues, and develop analytical thinking skills.
ProQuest Central
Discover extensive, foundational full-text scholarly content from journals, magazines, news sources, trade publications and more. Users can access content from Springer, Cambridge University Press, The New England Journal of Medicine, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and more. This dynamic, multidisciplinary resource delivers coverage aligned to discipline-specific curriculum and is enhanced with video, ebooks, A&I resources, and primary sources, making it the ideal resource to support successful research from start to finish.