Finding Scholarly Articles on English Topics
Library databases can contain many types of documents and information. When researching English topics, that might include literary criticism, original research articles, historical documents, encyclopedia entries and the full text of literary works to name a few. Some of the more popular databases for English topics are listed under Suggested Library Databases to Get Started on English Topics. Other more specialized resources are listed below in the More Specialized Databases section. If you're unsure where to start, please contact a librarian for some suggestions.
Suggested Library Databases to Get Started on English Topics
- Academic Search Complete (EBSCO) This link opens in a new windowScholarly, popular, and trade articles from 1975-present in all fields. (Partially paid for by INSPIRE: Indiana's Virtual Library.)
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowInterdisciplinary, full-text scholarly articles, books, and primary sources. Coverage back to the first issue of journals; embargo on some current content. Library subscribes to the following archival databases: All Arts & Sciences (I-IV); Ecology and Botany I; Health & General Sciences; and Life Sciences.
- MLA International Bibliography (EBSCO) This link opens in a new windowCitations for articles on language, linguistics, literature, and folklore.
- Literature Resource Center (Gale) This link opens in a new windowBiographical information, overviews, literary criticism, and reviews on writers in all disciplines, from all time periods, internationally.
- Project Muse This link opens in a new windowFull-text scholarly articles in arts & humanities and social sciences.
More Specialized Databases
- Eighteenth-Century Fiction (Chadwyck-Healey) This link opens in a new window96 complete works of English prose by British writers from 1700-1780.
- 19th Century Literature Criticism (Gale) This link opens in a new windowPart of library subscription to Literature Criticism Online.
- 20th (Twentieth) Century American Poetry (Chadwyck-Healey) This link opens in a new windowPoems by over 300 poets, including Adrienne Rich, Andrei Codrescu, Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, Denise Levertov, Wallace Stevens, Langston Hughes, Lucille Clifton, and Cathy Song.
- 20th Century Literary Criticism (Gale) This link opens in a new windowPart of library subscription to Literature Criticism Online
- African American Poetry (Chadwyck-Healey) This link opens in a new windowEarly history of African American poetry, from 1746 to the major poets of the nineteenth century.
- African Writers Series (Chadwyck-Healey) This link opens in a new windowKey texts of modern African literature.
- Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (Chadwyck-Healey) This link opens in a new windowIndex of monographs, periodical articles, critical editions of literary works, book reviews and collections of essays published worldwide from 1920-present.
- Artemis Literary Sources (Gale) This link opens in a new windowInformation on authors and their works, literary movements, and genres.
- Arts & Humanities Citation Index (1987-present) This link opens in a new windowIndex of scholarly articles in the arts and humanities.
- Asian American Drama (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new windowOver 250 plays, biographical, production, and theatrical information, from 1891-present.
- Black Drama (3rd edition) (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new windowFull text of plays written from the mid-1800s-present by playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries.
- Black Short Fiction and Folklore (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new windowLiterary magazines, short stories and folktales.
- Black Women Writers (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new windowFiction, poetry, and essays of women from Africa and the African Diaspora.
- Book Review Digest Plus (EBSCO) This link opens in a new windowReviews of adult and juvenile fiction and non-fiction books, 1983-present.
- Book Review Digest Retrospective: 1905-1982 (EBSCO) This link opens in a new windowReviews of adult and juvenile fiction and non-fiction books, 1905-1982.
- Brill Humanities and Social Sciences E-Books This link opens in a new windowCovers History, Biblical Studies, Asian Studies, International Law, Religious Studies, Classical Studies, Middle East and Islamic Studies, Literature and Cultural Studies, Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Language and Linguistics, Jewish Studies, Ancient Near East and Egypt, Philosophy, African Studies, Biology, Theology and World Christianity, and more.
- British Literary Manuscripts Online (Gale) This link opens in a new windowManuscripts of British authors, containing poems, plays, novels, diaries, journals, and correspondence. Access includes: 1) Medieval and Renaissance, and 2) 1660-1900.
- C19: The Nineteenth Century Index (Chadwyck-Healey) This link opens in a new windowThe most comprehensive and dynamic source for discovering nineteenth-century books, periodicals, official documents, newspapers and archives. Includes Palmer's Index and Fulltext
- Caribbean Literature (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new windowPoetry and fiction produced in the region during the 19th and 20th centuries.
- Children's Literature Review (Gale) This link opens in a new windowPart of the library's subscription to Literature Criticism Online.
- Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism (Gale) This link opens in a new windowPart of the library's subscription to Literature Criticism Online.
- Dictionary of Literary Biography Complete Online (Gale) This link opens in a new windowBiographical and critical essays on the lives, works, and careers of influential literary figures from all eras and genres.
- Dissertations & Theses Global (ProQuest) This link opens in a new windowSEE ProQuest Dissertation & Theses Global (PQDT Global)
- Early American Fiction 1789-1875 (Chadwyck-Healey) This link opens in a new windowFull-text of first editions of American novels and short stories.
- Early English Books Online (ProQuest) This link opens in a new windowImages of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700.
- Early English Prose Fiction (Chadwyck-Healey) This link opens in a new windowWorks of prose fiction from 1500-1700.
- Editions and Adaptations of Shakespeare (1591-1911) (Chadwyck-Healey) This link opens in a new windowPlays and poems, selected apocrypha and related works. Also contains adaptations, sequels and burlesques from the 17th-19th centuries.
- English Drama (Chadwyck-Healey) This link opens in a new windowCollection of plays in verse and prose tracing the development of drama in English from the medieval mystery cycles to Oscar Wilde.
- English Poetry (Chadwyck-Healey) This link opens in a new windowEnglish poetic canon from the 8th to the early 20th centuries.
- English Verse Drama This link opens in a new windowThe use of this resource is restricted to Indiana University faculty, staff, and students.
- Essay & General Literature Index (H.W. Wilson) (EBSCO) This link opens in a new windowCites records contained in collections of essays and miscellaneous works published in the United States, Great Britain, and Canada. (Access provided by INSPIRE: Indiana’s Virtual Library)
- Fiction Core Collection (H.W. Wilson) (EBSCO) This link opens in a new windowAnnotated list of fiction for adults including both established and contemporary works either written in, or translated into, English.
- Humanities Full Text (H.W. Wilson) (EBSCO) This link opens in a new windowScholarly sources in the humanities, as well as specialized magazines. (Access provided by INSPIRE: Indiana’s Virtual Library)
- Humanities Source (EBSCO) This link opens in a new windowFull-text and citations to articles in the humanities, including book reviews.
- IngentaConnect (Ingenta) This link opens in a new windowAccess to multidisciplinary academic and professional research articles.
- International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance with Full Text (EBSCO) This link opens in a new windowIndex of the International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance (IBTD), and full-text of performing arts journals. (Access provided by INSPIRE: Indiana’s Virtual Library)
- International Index to the Performing Arts Full Text (ProQuest) This link opens in a new windowIIPA contains performing arts articles covering film, theater, and dance, 1864-present.
- Irish Women Poets of the Romantic Period (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new windowVolumes of poetry by ~50 Irish women writing from 1768-1842.
- Latin American Women Writers (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new windowProse, poetry, drama, and essays by women writing in Mexico, Central America, and South America.
- Latino Literature: Poetry, Drama, and Fiction This link opens in a new windowFiction, poetry, and plays representing the Chicano culture and all the different ethnicities of Latin American writers with a Hispanic background working in the United States.
- Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA) (ProQuest) This link opens in a new windowArticles, book reviews, books, book chapters, dissertations, and working papers in linguistics and related disciplines in the language sciences.
- Literary Reference Plus (EBSCO) This link opens in a new windowInformation on authors and their works across literary disciplines and timeframes. (Access provided by INSPIRE: Indiana’s Virtual Library)
- Literature and Language (ProQuest) This link opens in a new windowContains 43 collections, including: Black Short Fiction and Folklore, Black Women Writers, Caribbean Literature, Irish Women Poets of the Romantic Period, Latin American Women Writers, Latino Literature, Scottish Women Poets of the Romantic Period, South and Southeast Asian Literature.
- Literature Resource Center (Gale) This link opens in a new windowBiographical information, overviews, literary criticism, and reviews on writers in all disciplines, from all time periods, internationally.
- Loeb Classical library This link opens in a new windowGreek and Latin literature including epic and lyric poetry; tragedy and comedy; history, travel, philosophy, and oratory.
- MagillOnLiterature Plus (EBSCO) This link opens in a new windowLiterary works, reviewed critical analyses, brief plot summaries, biographies and author essays. (Access provided by INSPIRE: Indiana’s Virtual Library)
- Motif-Index of Folk Literature This link opens in a new windowClassification of narrative elements in folktales, ballads, myths, fables, medieval romances, exempla, fabliaux, jest-books, and local legends.
- North American Indian Drama (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new windowPlays and the Native Playwrights' Newsletter.
- North American Indian Drama (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new windowPlays and the Native Playwrights' Newsletter.
- North American Women's Drama (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new windowPlays, along with related biographical, production, and theatrical information, from colonial times to the present.
- Perseus Digital Library This link opens in a new windowMaterials including: Greek and Roman, Arabic language, Germanic, 19th century America, Renaissance, Humanist and Renaissance Italian Poetry in Latin.
- Play Index (H.W. Wilson) (EBSCO) This link opens in a new windowIndex of classic, historical, and contemporary plays. (Access provided by INSPIRE: Indiana’s Virtual Library)
- Poetry Criticism (Gale) This link opens in a new windowPart of library subscription to Literature Criticism Online.
- Research Library (ProQuest) This link opens in a new windowDatabases including arts, business, education, health, humanities, military, psychology, sciences, social sciences, and women's interests. Coverage: 1971-present.
- Scottish Women Poets of the Romantic Period (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new windowRomantic Poetry, extensive contemporary critical reviews, and material by leading scholars.
- Shakespearean Criticism (Gale) This link opens in a new windowPart of library subscription to Literature Criticism Online.
- Shakespeare Collection: Featuring The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works (Gale) This link opens in a new windowGeneral reference data, full-text scholarly periodicals, reprinted criticism, primary source material and the full-text annotated works from The Arden Shakespeare.
- Short Story Criticism (Gale) This link opens in a new windowPart of library subscription to Literature Criticism Online.
- Short Story Index (EBSCO) This link opens in a new windowIndex to short stories written in or translated into English that have appeared in collections and selected periodicals (indexed in Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature and Humanities Index). (Access provided by INSPIRE: Indiana’s Virtual Library)
- Something About the Author Online (Gale) This link opens in a new windowAll volumes of the series, which examines the lives and works of authors and illustrators for children and young adults.
- South and Southeast Asian Literature (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new windowFiction and poetry written in English by authors from South and Southeast Asia and their Diasporas. Focuses on works composed during the late-colonial and postcolonial eras.
- TeachingBooks.net (for Indiana residents) This link opens in a new windowAdds a multimedia dimension to everyone's reading experiences of children's and young adult books. This link gives IUPUI patrons access to most resources without registering. If users want unlimited access to all materials you must sign in and fill out the brief profile (must enter your IUPUI email address). (Access to Indiana residents provided by INSPIRE: Indiana’s Virtual Library)
- Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive (Gale) This link opens in a new windowArchive of the TLS. Part of Gale NewsVault.
- Underground and Independent Comics (Alexander Street Press) This link opens in a new windowUnderground and independent comics, comix, and graphic novels.
- Victorian Women Writers Project This link opens in a new windowTranscriptions of works by British women writers of the 19th century.
- Women Writers Online This link opens in a new windowFull-text of early women’s writing in English published between 1526 and 1850.
- Wright American Fiction This link opens in a new windowCollection of 19th century American fiction, as listed in Lyle Wright's bibliography American Fiction, 1851-1875.