Multidisciplinary databases
Databases allow you to search across a large amount of academic resources (including peer-reviewed journals) at the same time. Using them is often more efficient than browsing or searching within individual journals separately.
To learn key differences between library databases and other search platforms, visit the Comparing Search Pathways guide.
The recommended core multidisciplinary databases below will retrieve results from many different subject areas. For a comprehensive list of all available resources refer to the A-Z Ejournals and Databases page.
- Discovery (EBSCO)Use Discovery as a starting point for your research to get an overview of the key concepts, themes, and authors of your topic. Find journal articles, books, ebooks and more. Discovery search results do not include everything that the library provides access to.
- Google ScholarGoogle Scholar is a popular way to find sources for study and research. Set up your Google Scholar preferences to search for journal articles that the University of Melbourne has access to. Be aware that not all resources listed in Google Scholar results are scholarly.
- JSTORJSTOR is one of the largest databases the Library has access to. It looks in thousands of journals in over a hundred subjects, many of them related to Arts and Humanities. Highly recommended as your first or second place to search.
- ProQuest CentralCovering more than 160 subjects areas, ProQuest Central is the largest aggregated database of periodical content. It features a diverse mix of content including scholarly journals, trade publications, magazines, books, newspapers, reports and videos.
- Scopus (Elsevier)Scopus is a large, multidisciplinary database which looks through journals, books, and conference papers. Scopus doesn't always have full-text PDFs but the 'times cited' and 'related articles' tools make it an excellent place to quickly identify new research.
- Web of ScienceWeb of Science is a massive, multidisciplinary database which includes a large amount of humanities and social sciences material from as far back as 1900. Like Scopus it has some advanced features that allows you to quickly link to related research.
Australian Indigenous Studies databases
For more focused results, try searching in one of these subject-specific databases.
- Indigenous CollectionThe Informit Indigenous Collection (IIC) offers both topical and historical issues within Indigenous studies. Readily available, the multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary framework encompasses anthropology, community development, cultural studies, economics, education, health, history, human geography, law and land rights, literature, politics and policy making, (post)colonial studies, psychology, race studies, sociology and visual and performing arts. It covers the period from 1977 to present both for full text publications and index.
- Indigenous AustraliaIndigenous Australia covers Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander studies including the stolen generation, arts, copyright issues, racism, discrimination, and communities and represents the collections of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission Library. It covers the period from 1968 to Dec. 2002.
- AIATSIS - Indigenous Studies Bibliography (Informit)Indigenous Studies Bibliography covers published and unpublished material on Australian Indigenous studies and is produced by Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Library. It covers the period 1990 to present.
- Anthropology Online (Alexander Street Press)Alexander Street Anthropology brings together a wide range of streaming video, written ethnographies, field notes, seminal texts, memoirs, and contemporary studies, covering human behavior the world over. Essential for study in the areas of politics, economics, history, psychology, environmental studies, religion, area studies, linguistics, and geography, the database will contain more than 1,800 documentary films and over 100,000 pages of full-text material at completion, including tens of thousands of pages of previously unpublished material from major archives.
Key journals for Australian Indigenous Studies
The following titles are peer-reviewed journals which include high-quality articles for your research.