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Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies: Bibliographic Databases

Introduction

Bibliographic databases offer focussed searching for content on a particular topic, allowing the discovery of relevant journal articles, conference proceedings, book chapters and more. 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.

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 databases for Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies and a link to browse all databases in Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies.

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:

Below are key bibliographic databases applicable to Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Oxford.

Access

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

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.

An online bibliography providing information about journal articles relating to world history from 1450 to the present (excluding the United States and Canada, which are covered in America: History and Life).

An online bibliography providing information about journal articles relating to the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. The database comprises over 490,000 bibliographic entries for periodicals dating back to 1954.

Provides searchable indexed records from over 4,000 humanities journals from 1926 to the present, focusing on modern languages and literature. You can search for articles by author, subject or title, and complex combined keyword searches are also possible. 

Focuses on visual arts, and indexes a number of film journals, including Cahiers du Cinéma, Cinéaste, Film Comment, Film Quarterly, Journal of Popular Film and Television, Jump Cut, Sight and Sound, Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema.

In some cases, the database will provide the full text of an article. If the full article is not available via the database, search SOLO for the journal title to see if the journal is available in print or electronic format at Oxford.

This bibliographic database indexes over 340 academic and popular film journals, dating from 1972 onwards. In addition, the database provides the full-text of 48 of the indexed journals.

To find articles on specific topics, there are a number of databases available via the A-Z Databases page which index journals and other publications. Search the databases listing for the name of the database you want to use, or browse using the drop-down Subject menu. To access many databases and other e-resources when you are not logged on to the University network, you will need to use your Oxford Single Sign-on.

Recommend 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).