Library Guides: Economics: Academic journals

Key academic journal databases

These are the key databases for academic journal articles in economics.

They contain peer-reviewed journal articles reviewed by academic experts in the field before they are accepted for publication.

EconLit
EconLit is the foremost source of references to economic literature with citations and abstracts dating back to 1886. EconLit uses the JEL classification system and controlled vocabulary of keywords to index six types of records: journal articles, books, collective volume articles, dissertations, working papers and full-text book reviews from the Journal of Economic Literature. The database is updated monthly.
Business Source Complete (EBSCO)
Business Source Complete is a scholarly business database, featuring a large collection of bibliographic and full text content. As part of the coverage offered by this database, indexing and abstracts for important scholarly business journals back as far as 1886 are included and searchable cited references are provided for more than 1,300 journals.
ProQuest Central
Covering more than 160 subjects areas, ProQuest Central is the largest aggregated database of periodical content. This award-winning online reference resource features a highly-respected, diversified mix of content including scholarly journals, trade publications, magazines, books, newspapers, reports and videos.
Emerald Journals
Emerald Journals cover a broad range of subjects, most notably in the areas of business management, economics and education. Content is selected for original contribution to the subject field, as well as practical relevance to policy making and future inquiry.
Business Collection
An essential reference for business studies and research, the Informit Business Collection covers a range of subjects within a business context including management, e-business, economics, commercial law, marketing and human resources. This full text Collection contains journals, books, conference proceedings and reports. It covers the period from 1993 to present for both Full text and Index.
Web of Science
Web of Science Core Collection provides quick, powerful access to the world's leading citation databases. Authoritative, multidisciplinary content covers over 12,000 of the highest impact journals worldwide, including Open Access journals and over 150,000 conference proceedings. You'll find current and retrospective coverage in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities, with coverage to 1900.
Scopus (Elsevier)
Scopus is an abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature: scientific journals, books and conference proceedings. Delivering a comprehensive overview of the world's research output in the fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and arts and humanities, Scopus features smart tools to track, analyze and visualize research.
Academic Search Complete (EBSCO)
Academic Search™ Complete is a multidisciplinary full-text database, providing access to more than 8,600 full-text periodicals, including more than 7,500 peer-reviewed journals. In addition to full text it 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.
ScienceDirect Journals (Elsevier)
ScienceDirect is Elsevier's leading platform of peer-reviewed scholarly literature. It is a large database of scientific, technical, and medical research with a wide variety of features and content.
JSTOR
JSTOR is a digital library of thousands of academic journals, books, and primary sources from a wide range academic publishers and university presses. Titles span across disciplines, including core areas such as business & economics, social sciences, education, history, language & literature and science. Current journals are linked and cross-searchable with archival journals and ebooks on JSTOR, helping patrons discover, use, and build upon a constantly expanding range of academic content.
SocINDEX with Full Text (EBSCHOhost)
SocINDEX™ with Full Text is the world's most comprehensive and highest-quality sociology research database. Its extensive scope and content provide users with a wealth of extremely useful information encompassing the broad spectrum of sociological study. The database features more than 2.1 million records with subject headings from a 20,000+ term sociological thesaurus designed by subject experts and expert lexicographers.

Find a Journal by Title, Subject or ISSN

Find a journal by title, subject or ISSN

Key journal ranking lists

There is a number of journal ranking lists that you can consult - some of the most commonly employed are listed here.

Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC) Journal Quality List - produced by the peak body of Australian university business schools, dividing journals into four areas of quality: A*, A, B, C.
Harzing Journal Quality List - produced by Professor Anne-Wil Harzing, is a collation of journal rankings from a variety of sources in the following broad areas: Economics, Finance, Accounting, Management, and Marketing.
InCites - Journal Citation Reports - click on 'Categories' to browse journals indexed in Web of Science across Business & Economics, the Social Sciences and all other subject areas.
Scopus - click on 'Sources' to browse journals indexed in Scopus across Business, Management and Accounting, Decision Sciences, Economics, Econometrics and Finance, Social Sciences and all other subject areas.

For more detailed information and guidance on journal rankings, visit the 'Journal Metrics' section of the 'Research Impact for Business & Economics' guide.

Unlock online pay-walled resources with quick access tools

The Library offers browser extensions and other tools that can seamlessly give you access to locked, subscription-only content you find online. There's no need to remember passwords, sign in to sites, or go back to the library databases to find an unlocked version. These tools are your access-all-areas pass to pay-walled scholarly content.

Lean Library - a browser extension that directly logs you into sites the Library subscribes to, bypassing the library website. It works in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Microsoft Edge.

LibKey Nomad - a browser extension that puts direct PDF download links onto research platforms and other sites. It works in Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Brave, and Vivaldi.

Google Scholar - do you want to use Google Scholar to find articles? Turn on the Find it@UniMelb links in your Google Scholar search results. See the settings instructions.

Learn about our access tools