African Studies: Databases

The Africa Bibliography is an authoritative guide to works in African studies published under the auspices of the International African Institute annually since 1984. The online consolidated version brings together every record collected since the bibliography’s foundation, producing a rich and interactive resource for all scholars interested in the study of Africa.

Africa Yearbook, 2004 (Volume 1) & Africa Yearbook, 2005 (Volume 2)

This Africa Yearbook is a joint undertaking by the African Studies Centre in Leiden (ASC), the Institute of African Affairs in Hamburg (IAK) and the Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala (NAI). It has its origins in a German Afrika Jahrbuch that has been produced by IAK for the past 17 years. In May 2003, the Africa-Europe Group for Interdisciplinary Studies (AEGIS), a network of European academics working on Africa, encouraged the three centres to publish an Africa Yearbook with a wider international appeal.

The country-specific articles cover domestic political developments, foreign policy and socioeconomic trends in sub-Saharan African states in the calendar year under review. The Africa Yearbook also contains articles on each of four sub-regions, focusing on major cross-border developments and sub-regional organisations. In addition, one article analyses continental developments while another addresses European-African relations. While the editors recognise the impossibility of finding a fully objective indicator of the comparative importance of each sub-Saharan state, the length of each country-specific article aims to reflect the approximate relative political, economic and/or demographic weight of each country.

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The electronic edition of Heinemann's African Writers Series, providing searchable online access to the founding works of modern African literature from 1962-2003, mostly now out of print. Over 260 volumes of fiction, poetry, myths, drama, memoirs and reportage are included from a wide geographic range across Africa, mostly written in English but including some translated volumes. Each work is available in full text, re-keyed from authoritative editions, and every author has an author page with links to all their works and a biography specially commissioned for the collection.

ASSIA: Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts on the Web is an indexing and abstracting tool covering health, social services, economics, politics, race relations and education. Updated monthly, ASSIA provides a comprehensive source of social science and health information for the practical and academic professional.

ASSIA currently contains over 255,000 records from 650 journals in 16 different countries, including the UK and US. 1987 - current.

BoB is an on demand TV and radio service for education. It allows staff and students at subscribing institutions to search an archive of over 2 million broadcasts, record programmes from over 65 free-to-air channels, and create their own playlists, clips and clip compilations. Content includes BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Four, ITV, Channel 4, Film4, 10 foreign language channels, BBC Shakespeare Archive content dating back to the 1950s, and more.

EconLit provides citations, with selected abstracts, to the international publications on economics since 1969.EconLit covers a broad range of document types, including journal articles, books, dissertations,and articles in collective works.

Eldis is one of a family of knowledge services from the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex and aims to share the best in development, policy, practice and research.

Eldis offers:

* 18,000 online full text documents

We maintain an ever-growing collection of editorially selected and abstracted full-text, online documents selected by our editors from more than 4,500 different publishers. All documents are available free of charge

* Eldis Resource Guides

Our 30 subject-focused guides offer quick access to key documents, organisations, research themes, discussions and other key resources

* Eldis Email Newsletters

Our email news services bring the latest research to your mail-box on 35 topics

* Eldis Newsfeeds

Add an Eldis RSS newsfeed to your website or newsreader for the latest information on 25 topics

* Eldis Country Profiles

Offers materials from our database arranged by country, plus quick links to country briefing services on other websites

* News, Events and Jobs

Our selection of recent development news, announcements, email newsletters and job adverts

Historical Abstracts is your complete reference guide to the history of the world from 1450 to the present (excluding the United States and Canada, which are covered in America: History and Life). This database is packed with annotated references to information on topics from the Renaissance to Tiananmen Square - over half a million entries in all.

Published since 1954, Historical Abstracts has long been recognized as the leading bibliography for historical study in the world. Currently over 2,000 journals published throughout the world are covered in the database, making this a historical periodical database unmatched in breadth. In addition to including the key historical journals from virtually every major country, Historical Abstracts includes a targeted selection of hundreds of journals in the social sciences and humanities that are of special interest to researchers and students of history.

The International Bibliography of the Social Sciences is a bibliographic database compiled by the British Library of Political & Economic Science of the London School of Economics & Political Science. This database contains bibliographic information from an international selection of publications (including over 2600 journals) in the fields of economics, political science, sociology, and anthropology. The bibliographic data in respect of the years prior to 1987 was originally compiled by the International Committee for Social Science Information and Documentation, and provided by courtesy of the International Committee for Social Science Information and Documentation and UNESCO.

Oxford Bibliographies are comprehensive subject bibliographies, which provide an up-to-date overview of the most recent and authoritative scholarship in a given field. Oxford Bibliographies provides faculty and students alike with a seamless pathway to the most accurate and reliable resources for a variety of academic topics. Every article in the database is an authoritative guide to the current scholarship, written and reviewed by academic experts, with original commentary and annotations. The modules include:

African American Studies, African Studies, American Literature, Anthropology, Art History, Atlantic History, Biblical Studies, British and Irish Literature, Buddhism, Childhood Studies, Chinese Studies, Cinema and Media Studies, Classics, Communication, Criminology, Ecology, Education, Environmental Science, Evolutionary Biology, Geography, Hinduism, International Law, International Relations, Islamic Studies, Jewish Studies, Latin American Studies, Latino Studies, Linguistics, Literary and Critical Theory, Management, Medieval Studies, Military History, Music, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, Public Health, Renaissance and Reformation, Social Work, Sociology, Victorian Literature.

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In order to access ODNB, please follow the link above. If you are accessing remotely, you may be prompted to enter your SSO credentials. You will then be taken to the ODNB homepage, and you should see a message “University of Oxford” displayed above the login box. At this point you will have gained access to full text articles, and there is no need to log in on the ODNB homepage. In order to access the articles from the search results, you will need to click on their titles. If you still have experienced problems with ODNB, please clear your cache and cookies, as previous unsuccessful login attempts may be interfering with the current session, and then follow the above instructions again. The recent issues with ODNB's new interface have been flagged with the OUP.

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After twelve years' work, involving over 10,000 people, writing and editing 60 million words to produce a 60 volume book, and a website with over 100,000 pages, the Oxford DNB was published on 23 September 2004.

An illustrated collection of 50,000 specially written biographies of the men and women who shaped all aspects of Britain's past, from the fourth century BC to the year 2000. Remarkable people in any walk of life who were connected with the British Isles - excluding living people. It includes not just the great and good, but people who have left a mark for any reason, good, bad, or bizarre.

Sage Research Methods Online (SRMO) is essentially a collection of ebook content put together in a unique way to help you understand research methods. The site includes access to the entire "Little Green Book" and "Little Blue Book" series as well as dictionaries, encyclopaedias, handbooks and other commissioned material. The site includes a unique methods map and a discussion forum. Access is not available to the ‘add-on’ content - videos, cases and datasets.

Scopus is a bibliographic database for science, medicine and some social sciences. It covers over 25,000 journals and over 300,000 books from over 7,000 publishers worldwide, providing access to over 90 million records going back as far as the 18th century.

The Eurostat Database (formerly the Eurostat New Cronos Database) contains high quality macroeconomic and social statistics data, mostly organised into nine statistical themes: General and regional statistics; Economy and finance; Population and social conditions; Industry, trade and services; Agriculture, forestry and fisheries; International trade; Transport; Environment and energy; Science, technology, digital society.

Global Health brings together the resources of two internationally renowned databases - the Public Health and Tropical Medicine (PHTM) database, previously produced by the Bureau of Hygiene and Tropical Diseases (BHTD), and the human health and diseases information extracted from CAB ABSTRACTS.

Dating back to 1973, together they provide a unique resource which offers a substantially deeper subject coverage of information related to human health and communicable diseases than many other sources currently available.

The Global Health database covers the following aspects of human health and disease:

* communicable diseases (including HIV/AIDS)

* tropical diseases, i.e, diseases in the tropics (including field and experimental studies)

* parasitic diseases and parasitology - medical entomology

* human nutrition (including food composition, food poisoning, effects of diet on health, nutritional disorders, and experimental aspects)

* community and public health (including chronic diseases, occupational health, health status indicators, the impact of agriculture on health, and cancer epidemiology)

* medicinal and poisonous plants (including pharmacology, tissue culture, animal studies, plant composition, allergens, and toxins)

The records may also appear in some 44 printed abstract journals published by CABI Publishing. Over 16,000 serial sources from more than 130 countries are scanned regularly for inclusion in the Global Health database, to produce approximately 25,000 new entries per year. Nearly all records have informative English abstracts prepared by scientists and linguists.

The IMF elibrary provides online access to the complete collection of global economic content published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) comprising more than 11,000 text publications and full access to the IMF's statistical databases. Access offers information and analysis on macroeconomics, globalization, development, trade and aid, technical assistance, demographics, emerging markets, policy advice and poverty reduction.

Landscan is a population database that maps geographical distribution of a populace within cells of one-kilometre resolution over a 24 hour period. This allows assessment, estimation and visualisation of populations reacting to disease outbreaks, social upheaval or natural disasters. The modelling process uses sub-national level census counts and other data for each country combined with high resolution imagery analysis.

Coverage is global. The archive of data is available as far back as 2000. Access via a web-based application allows general browsing and visualisation.

Deeper analysis is possible using Web Map Service (WMS) or Web Coverage Service GIS applications. The username and password required to access the data in this form is provided on the Username and password webpage.

The news coverage offered by Nexis UK - Global news and business information service has over 20,000 sources of authoritative news, company, financial and market research data. The complete, fully customisable, online news and business research service bringing together in a single source, all news, financial and business information licensed by LexisNexis for the academic market from around the globe.

OECD iLibrary is the online library of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) featuring its books, papers and statistics. It is the gateway to OECD’s analysis and data with online access provided for all publications and statistics released since 1998.

The iLibrary covers 17 key themes including development, economics, governance, trade and social issues, migration and health. As of March 2013 content includes 5 billion data points across 42 databases; 44,630 tables and graphs; 8,330 ebook titles; 30,280 chapters; and 1,920 key tables.

Please note that we do not have access to IEA statistics through OECD iLibrary.

Main Economic Indicators

The OECD produces annual, quarterly and monthly data for around 3,800 economic indicators. The variables cover national accounts, industrial production, employment, prices, business trends and trade. The dataset also includes the OECD's leading indicators (key variables that signal changes in the business cycle). Runs from January 1960 to the current month.

OECD Structural Analysis (STAN)

This portfolio includes four databases each useful at different units of analyses. The STAN indicatorsÆ industry list is based upon ISIC revision 3 and covers 65 sectors where detailed information varies across country, indicator, and coverage: STAN fills the gap between Industrial survey data (microdata) and National level aggregate statistics (macrodata). You can use STAN to analyse industrial structure and the evolution of industrial performance (e.g. import penetration, investment per employee, export market shares) within and across countries. The databases are updated on an annual basis and run from 1970 onwards.

OECD National Accounts

The OECD National Accounts presents a series of databases all containing data related to national accounts and its components including comparable statistics for key indicators. Countries covered vary but generally include OECD countries and a select group of non-OECD countries. The database is updated on a quarterly and annual basis and runs from 1955.

Main Science and Technology Indicators

The 149 Main Science and Technology Indicators provides final or provisional results and government forecasts covering such topics as resources devoted to research and development, patent families, the technology balance of payments, and international trade in highly Research and Development intensive industries.

Measuring Globalisation 2001

The Measuring Globalisation Statistics database contains figures on foreign affiliates (inward investment) by investing country in the manufacturing sector covering variable

The UK Data Archive is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and is the curator of one of the worlds largest collections of social science and humanities digital data. Extensive information is provided on managing, archiving and analysing data but collections access is via its sister organisation the UK Data Service.

It holds several thousand datasets from national and international projects including key national and international census data collections, NGO databases and individual project data. Types of deposit includes quantitative and qualitative data. It also offers substantial advice to those creating social science research data or looking for a place of deposit. This covers creating and managing data, the research data lifecycle, confidentiality as well as ethical and legal issues.

For assistance in depositing datasets from research projects please contact John Southall, Bodleian Data Librarian

john.southall@bodleian.ox.ac.uk or refer to the Bodleian Data Service for further guidance.

UKDS (UK Data Service) provides access and support for a range of international datasets (macro and micro) and the NS Time Series Databank. The service promotes and facilitate effective use of international datasets in research and teaching in social sciences.

The University of Oxford's subscription provides access to the UN Comtrade Database premium service. This includes the facility for users to bulk download data which is denied those using the UN Open Data portal.

UN Comtrade contains detailed import and export flow data for over 200 countries listed by commodity and partner country. These data are processed into a standard format with consistent coding and valuation. All values are converted into US dollars using exchange rates supplied by the countries, or derived from monthly market rates and volume of trade. Where possible quantities are converted into metric units. For many countries the data coverage starts as far back as 1962 and all go up to the most recent completed year.

Commodities are classified according to Standard International Trade Classification (SITC) and the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS). The original data are also converted and stored in alternative classifications

NOTE: To access the premium service please register with an .ox.ac.uk email address.

The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) launched a new internet based data service for the global user community. It brings UN statistical databases within easy reach of users through a single entry point (http://data.un.org/). Users can now search and download a variety of statistical resources of the UN system.

The World Bank’s mission is to alleviate poverty, with a desire to foster public ownership, partnership and participation in development from a wide range of stakeholders. It provides free and open access to a comprehensive set of data about development in countries around the globe, together with other datasets cited in the data catalogue. Broad access to these data allow researchers, policymakers and advocacy groups to make well-informed decisions and measure improvements accurately.

The World Bank World Development Indicators (WDI) contain statistical data for over 600 development indicators for over 200 countries and 18 country groups running from 1960 onwards. The extensive collection of development data includes social, economic, financial, natural resources and environmental indicators.