InfoGuides: Library Research Basics: Find Articles

Mason Databases

Mason Databases
Use this link to access all of the University Libraries' databases.

Recommended Subject Databases

Art and Architecture Source This link opens in a new window
Covers a broad range of related subjects, from fine, decorative and commercial art, to various areas of architecture and architectural design. Provides full text access to journals and books; an image collection, art reproduction records, and includes periodicals published in French, Italian, German, Spanish and Dutch. Designed for art scholars, artists, designers, students, and general researchers.
Oxford Art Online This link opens in a new window
Scholarly art encyclopedia. Includes over 200,000 reference articles on every aspect of the visual arts from prehistory to the present, with selected images, written by over 6,800 scholars. Serves as the access point for Grove Art Online, the Benezit Dictionary of Artists, and other Oxford art reference resources.
Performing Arts Periodicals Database This link opens in a new window
Formerly International Index to Performing Arts (IIPA). Provides indexing and abstracts for international periodicals, plus full text for the indexed journals (1864-present) on the subjects of the arts and entertainment industry - including dance, drama, theater, stagecraft, musical theater, circus performance, opera, pantomime, puppetry, magic, performance art, film, television and more.
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive bibliography on writings about music featuring citations, abstracts and indexes. It covers nearly one and a half million publications from around the world on traditional music, popular music, jazz, classical music and related subjects. Coverage begins in the early 19th century and extends to the present.

ABI/INFORM Collection This link opens in a new window
The ABI/INFORM Collection includes international coverage and provides researchers a complete picture of companies and business trends around the world.
Business Source Complete This link opens in a new window
Covers scholarly journals for business topics such as marketing, management, human resources, MIS, POM, accounting, finance and economics. Includes author profiles, financial data, books, major reference works, book digests, conference proceedings, case studies, company profiles, SWOT analyses, investment research reports, industry reports, market research reports, datamonitor, and country reports from 1886.
Factiva This link opens in a new window
Supplies international business and news coverage from more than 8,000 sources including newspapers, newswires, magazines, trade journals, radio and television transcripts, and websites. Compiles company information and data and up to 5 years of historical market data. Contains photographs and pictures from Reuters and Knight Ridder. See the Factiva link generator to generate permalinks to Factiva records.
Mergent Online This link opens in a new window
Mergent Online is transitioning to a new platform called Mergent Market Atlas. Institutions will be able to provide access to both platforms until Mergent Online sunsets on June 30, 2025.
Delivers comprehensive suite of authoritative financial information. Up to 4 years of key financial information on over 400,000 global private companies; integrated screening and searching for public and private companies; full company reports in pdf format; ability to view competitors on both private and public companies.

CINAHL Plus with Full Text This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text to journals in the fields of nursing and allied health, with indexing back to 1937. Includes access to health care books, nursing dissertations, conference proceedings, standards of practice, educational software, Evidence-Based Care Sheets, legal cases, drug records, research instruments and clinical trials. Subject coverage includes nursing, biomedicine, alternative/complementary medicine, consumer health and 17 allied health disciplines.
Global Health This link opens in a new window
Provides information on international health, biomedical life sciences, non-communicable diseases, public health nutrition, food safety and hygiene, and more. Contains more than 1.4 million records dating back to 1973.
Medline with Full Text This link opens in a new window
The U.S. National Library of Medicine's premier bibliographic database of literature on medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health-care system, and pre-clinical sciences.
Nursing & Allied Health Database This link opens in a new window
Offers comprehensive coverage of the fields of nursing, allied health, alternative and complementary medicine, and more; covers journals, video, dissertations, and reference books.

ANTHROPOLOGY

Anthropology Plus This link opens in a new window
Index of bibliographic materials combining Anthropological Literature from Harvard University and Anthropological Index from the Royal Anthropological Institute. Provides worldwide indexing of journal articles, reports, commentaries, edited works, and obituaries in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, ethnology, folklore, material culture, and related interdisciplinary research from early 19th century to today.

ENGLISH & FOREIGN LANGUAGE

MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
Produced by the Modern Language Association (MLA), the MLA International Bibliography is the definitive index for the study of language, literature, linguistics, rhetoric and composition, folklore, and film, covering scholarly publications from the early 20th century to the present.
Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window
Full-text biographies, bibliographies, and critical analyses of more than 120,000 writers from a variety of periods and disciplines.

GLOBAL AFFAIRS

Global Issues (Gale In Context) This link opens in a new window
Formerly Global Issues in Context. Offers global perspectives on issues, topics, and current evens of international importance. Features frequently updated issue and country portals focusing on social, political, military, economic, environmental, health, and cultural issues.

HISTORY

Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Provides English language abstracts of scholarly literature from 1955 to present (journal articles, articles in collections, dissertations, book reviews) on world history from 1450, excluding North America. Includes full-text links to 420,000 journals.

COMMUNICATION

Communication and Mass Media Complete This link opens in a new window
Provides indexing, abstracting, and some full text for journals and books related to communication and mass media studies back to 1915.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Criminal Justice Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Provides comprehensive coverage of the major journals in criminology and related disciplines, extensive coverage of books, and unparalleled access to reports from government and nongovernmental agencies.

ECONOMICS

EconLit with Full Text This link opens in a new window
Provides bibliographic coverage of a wide range of economics-related literature. An expanded version of the Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) includes indexes of journals, books, and dissertations and full text of nearly 600 journals. Covers both economic theory and application.

EDUCATION

Education Research Complete This link opens in a new window
Covers all aspects of education including multilingual education, health education, testing, curriculum instruction, administration, policy, funding, and all levels of education from early childhood to higher education. Provides indexing for over 1,800 journals, as well as full-text for over 900 journals, 81 books, and numerous education-related conference papers.

GOVERNMENT

ASTRONOMY & PHYSICS

Inspec This link opens in a new window
Scientific and technical journals and conference proceedings in physics, electrical engineering and electronics, computing and control, and information technology.

BIOLOGY

BIOSIS Citations Index This link opens in a new window
Life sciences and biomedical research covering pre-clinical and experimental research, methods and instrumentation, animal studies, and more. Access content from journals, meetings, patents, and books covering 1926-present. Search precisely with BCI indexing and enhanced MeSH terms. Part of Web of Science.

CHEMISTRY

Reaxys
Access to this database ended on 1/27/2025. Please see SciFinder-n for an alternative resource. SciFinder-n Registration is required.
Merges CrossFire Beilstein, CrossFire Gmelin, and Patent Chemistry Database in one interface. Provides extensive coverage of high-quality, authoritative information and experimental data in organic, inorganic and organometalic chemistry. Resources and support are available on Reaxys' website.
SciFinder This link opens in a new window
Search the full run of Chemical Abstracts, including sub-structure searching. Also search by drawing chemical structures or reactions. Links to full-text where available. Note: SciFinder Registration is required.

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

Environment Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Search government documents on a wide range of topics from 1960 to present, including: energy, air pollution, toxicology, land use and pollution, water pollution, wildlife biodiversity, population/sustainable development, global warming, waste management, and agriculture.
Environment Complete This link opens in a new window
Offers coverage in the areas of ecosystem ecology, renewable energy sources, natural resources, marine & freshwater science, geography, pollution & waste management, environmental technology, environmental law, public policy, social impacts, and urban planning. Contains full-text for more than 600 journals and 100 books and indexes over 1,500 journals from 1888 to present.

GEOLOGY

GeoBase This link opens in a new window
Indexes research literature on the earth sciences, ecology, geology, human and physical geography, environmental sciences, oceanography, geomechanics, alternative energy sources, pollution, waste management, and nature conservation.
GeoRef This link opens in a new window
Provides access to the geoscience literature containing references to geoscience maps, serial, and non-serial literature. Includes references to all publications of the U.S. Geological Survey. Also covers master's theses and doctoral dissertations from US and Canadian universities. Coverage for North American resources starts in 1669, whereas worldwide coverage starts in 1933.

Computer Science

Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Digital Library This link opens in a new window
Citations and full-text articles in the area of computing and information technologies from journals, magazines, and conference proceedings published by the ACM.
Computers and Applied Sciences Complete This link opens in a new window
Includes indexing and abstracts for academic journals, professional publications, and reference sources. Subject areas include Engineering, Computer Theory & Systems, New Technologies, and Social and Professional context.
IEEE Xplore This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text access to all journals, transactions and conference proceedings published by IEEE and IET. Accesses more than 1,000 books in the IEEE-Wiley eBook Library and IEEE-MIT eBook Library-Computing and Engineering Collection.

Engineering

Compendex This link opens in a new window
Provides abstracts and full bibliographic citations for worldwide engineering and technical literature. Encompasses all engineering disciplines as well as related fields in science and management.
ASCE Digital Library-Civil Engineering Database This link opens in a new window
Provides immediate access to full-text electronic articles from ASCE journals and proceedings. Journal articles are from 1983-present and Proceeding Papers are from 2000-present.
ASTM Standards and Engineering Digital Library This link opens in a new window
Collects industry-leading standards and technical engineering information that provides standards, symposia papers, STPs, manuals, monographs, data series, and journals from a broad range of engineering disciplines. Includes access to AASHTO's (American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials) technical documents.

Forensic Science

National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Contains summaries of over 200,000 U.S. and international publications, including federal, state, and local government reports, books, research reports, journal articles, audiovisual presentations, and unpublished research. Excludes most legal decisions, opinions, and statues. The collection has been developed to meet the needs of criminal justice professionals, researchers, policy makers, and technical and legal experts. Unique elements of the collection include agency produced documents and final grant reports of Office of Justice Programs sponsored research.

Mathematics

MathSciNet This link opens in a new window
Provides access to reviews, abstracts and bibliographic information for the mathematical sciences literature. Includes access to Mathematical Reviews and Current Mathematical Publications from 1940 to present.

Tutorials for Finding Articles

Beginning the Research Process
This tutorial will help you master searching library resources, starting with choosing keywords, then putting them together to get accurate results.
Library Database Search Strategies
This tutorials will help you master searching library resources by teaching you advanced search techniques.
Access Full Text Using Mason Search
This tutorial will help you locate sources from citations found in references.
Evaluating Sources Using the CRAAP Test
This tutorial will teach you to how to evaluate the sources that you find during your research.