Finding Articles and more: Women's Studies Databases
Though journal articles covering women’s issues and feminist research can be found in resources from virtually all subject areas, the databases below are often the best places to start for Women’s Studies courses and topics:
Four EBSCO databases:
- Gender Studies Database: Uses authors' own keywords, covers more gender-related issues than any of the other databases, but not always consistent!
- Academic Search Complete: large and multidisciplinary, includes major women’s studies journals and magazines; includes lots of full-text articles.
- SOCIndex: Sociological and Social Sciences. Very strong coverage of Women's Studies issues.
- LGBT Life with Full Text
- Race Relations Abstracts
TIP: to search all four EBSCO databases at once, just select any one to begin with, and once connected click on the "Choose Databases" link at the top of the search screen.
- Google Scholar: a simple and powerful way to broadly search for scholarly articles, reports and books. If if you are a novice searcher, however, it may not be easy to decipher the list of results.
- Contemporary Women’s Issues: a mix of scholarly material, grey literature and news items.
For news, magazine and journal articles of Canadian origin or covering Canadian subjects (but not necessarily academic or or feminist material) start with these general sources:
- Canadian Newsstream: full-text access to Canadian daily newspapers including the Gazette.
- Eureka.cc: full text access to English and French language Québec & Canadian newspapers , magazines, newswires, blogs and broadcast transcripts.
- ProQuest Combined Canadian: indexes a wide variety of Canadian sources, from newspapers, transcripts and newsletters, to academic journals and theses.
- Canadian Periodical Index (CPI-Q): newspapers, magazines, journals.
- Factiva: Full text of international newspapers (including Canadian), transcripts and newswires (license for only one user at a time).
En français
- Eureka.cc: full text access to English and French language Québec & Canadian newspapers , magazines, newswires, blogs and broadcast transcripts.
- Érudit: academic journal articles, theses, books and book chapters - mostly from Québec.
- Repère: magazine and academic journal articles, mostly from Québec. No full text.
Below is a sampling of additional useful sources for Women's Studies research:
- Web of Science: includes social sciences, humanities, arts. Offers citation searching.
- Scopus: large multidisciplinary database. also offers citation searching.
- PsycINFO: the major database for psychological research.
NOTE: See also the guide for First Peoples Studies and Research Guides in all other subject areas.
Encyclopedias can provide that all-important background and context for research papers. Here is a sampling:
ONLINE:
- Wiley Encyclopedia of Social Theory (2018)
- Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sexuality and Gender Studies (2016)
- Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements (2014)
- Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology (updated annually)
- Gale eBooks - search encyclopedias simultaneously, including:
- NOTE: there are many, many more encyclopedias or other reference sources that may be appropriate, depending on your topic -- See our Online Encyclopedias guide or contact me for help.
- See Concordia University Library's guide on How to find theses.
- ProQuest Dissertations and Theses: Over two million doctoral dissertations and masters theses (90% from North America) published since 1861, although most of the full text starts from 1997.
- Google Scholar includes many theses