Oxford LibGuides: Portuguese and Brazilian Language and Literature: Databases

Introduction

Databases contain large amounts of data including (but not limited to) statistics, bibliographic information, images and abstracts.

Bibliographic databases are a useful tool for finding scholarly literature in your subject area. This includes (but is not limited to) journal articles, conference proceedings and books. They are very useful to consult when carrying out your own research because:

they provide powerful search functionality
have citation tools
have thesauri
their content is selected by experts in your subject

Bibliographic databases are helpful when you want to start exploring beyond your reading list or are researching a new topic.

On this page you will find recommended databases and guidance on how to search for and access databases.

Definitions

Terms you may encounter in your research

Database:
A collection of structured and organised data that is stored, searched and accessed electronically.

Bibliographic database:
A searchable platform that contains descriptive records of articles, books, conference proceedings, audio-visual material, maps, newspapers, and more.

Abstracting service:
Used to refer to a bibliographic database, the service provides abstracts of publications.

Indexing service:
Used to refer to a bibliographic database, the service provides descriptors to help organise and navigate publications.

Full-text:
This means you can read the item in full from beginning to end, not just the abstract or summary.

Bibliographic databases

Oxford subscribes to lots of databases you can use for free. You will likely find you need to use several databases for a thorough search of your subject area. The tabs at the top of this section take you to key bibliographic databases for Portuguese and Brazilian studies and a link to browse all databases in this subject area.

You can also search for specific databases via SOLO. Note, some key texts may be available via a database but not individually listed on SOLO.

Help with databases

For those seeking advice on accessing databases, we recommend the following guides:

Online and Remote Access
Information on accessing Bodleian Libraries content remotely.
University of Oxford E-resources Blog
The e-resources team use this blog to help keep you informed of news and changes in the world of e-journals and databases.

Below are key databases applicable to those studying Portuguese and Brazilian studies at Oxford.

Access

Depending on the database provider, you may need to use your Oxford Single Sign On to access materials.

Arts & Humanities Citation Index (ISI)
Alternative name: Web of Science. Arts & Humanities Citation Index is a multidisciplinary index covering the journal literature of the arts and humanities. It fully covers 1,144 of the world's leading arts and humanities journals, and it indexes individually selected, relevant items from over 6,800 major science and social science journals.
MLA International Bibliography (EBSCO)
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. International in scope, it includes citations to journal articles, books, articles in books, series, translations, scholarly editions, websites, and dissertations. It has more than 3 million records and is constantly updated by scholars in the field. The database also includes the MLA Directory of Periodicals and the MLA Thesaurus, a proprietary, searchable collection of thousands of subject terms, and personal names used in indexing the bibliography.
Redalyc: Red de Revistas Científicas de América Latina y el Caribe, España y Portugal
Redalyc is a full text open access archive of journals and articles across a wide range of disciplines with an Ibero-American focus. This includes material published in and about Spain, Portugal, South America and the Caribbean. Coverage runs through the sciences, social sciences and humanities, including art, literature, history and language.
Created by the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México.
JSTOR
JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization with a dual mission to create and maintain a trusted archive of important scholarly journals, and to provide access to these journals as widely as possible. JSTOR offers researchers the ability to retrieve high-resolution, scanned images of journal issues and pages as they were originally designed, printed, and illustrated. The journals archived in JSTOR span many disciplines.
Originally conceived as a project at The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, JSTOR began as an effort to ease the increasing problems faced by libraries seeking to provide adequate shelf space for the long runs of backfiles of scholarly journals. JSTOR is not a current issues database. Because of JSTOR's archival mission, there is a gap, typically from 1 to 5 years, between the most recently published journal issue and the back issues available in JSTOR.

To browse a list of bibliographic databases for Portuguese, Brazilian, and Lusophone studies, follow the links below which takes you through to Databases A-Z.

Portuguese studies databases
Databases focusing on language and literature resources.
Latin American Studies databases
A wider selection of databases focusing on Latin American studies in all disciplines, which may have useful material on Brazil.

Recommed a database

If the Bodleian Libraries don't have a database you are looking for, you can make a recommendation by completing the form below (Oxford Single-Sign On required).

Recommend a purchase