CMP-125 (Titus, Spring 2011)

Rider University Libraries subscribe to over 100 databases, where you can find citations and obtain access to reliable, quality--and both popular and/or scholarly-- information--newpaper, magazine, and journal articles; white papers; book chapters; and encylopedic and factual information--as well as streaming music and video. 

If you explore Google Scholar, REMEMBER:  You should never pay for an article. Check the Journal Holdings page to see if the Libraries subscribes or has access to the journal.  If not, we can get it for you through Interlibrary Loan (Delivery from Other Libraries); this may take up to two weeks, so give yourself enough lead time.

From the Libraries' home page select Databases & Indexes.  From here you can browse databases by SUBJECT or ALPHABETICALLY.

The following are selected databases that might be helpful in your research. There may be more; check the links above. 

JSTOR and Project MUSE are full text collections of certain scholarly journals spanning the disciplines and not comprehensive or specialized (discipline-specific) bibliographic databases.

What does this mean for me?

• (Almost) All of the articles are full text--and you can search the full text!

• You can search across disciplines, but be aware that you are searching a selected number of journals. It is important to use subject-specific bibliographic databases, where there may be more citations for your subject. They also have better indexing.

• With Project MUSE it may be easier to find relevant material than in JSTOR because it is indexed by librarians (articles are assigned subject headings). This means you can search in the "subject" field, or click on subject heading links to find more material with the same assigned subject.

• JSTOR provides full text keyword searching only. This means that you can not search by subject in a designated subject field. Therefore, you may wade through hundreds of results that are not relevant.  Your results will be as good as your query.  For effective searching in JSTOR, visit  Help and read “Searching JSTOR” to learn power commands and operators to increase relevancy.

JSTOR contains the full text of articles published in approximately 430 journals from the fields of arts and sciences, and business. Its archive spans from the first volume of the journal to within the past three to five years of the journal.

• Use Advanced Search and limit to a specific discipline under “Discipline(s) and/or Title(s)”. 

• See “Searching JSTOR” under “Help” or click the "Search Help" link in the Advanced Search tab to learn the operators to make your keyword searching more effective.

Search Articles in JSTOR

• Use Journal Holdings if a recent or current issue is not full-text in JSTOR to see whether we have access to it in print or another database.

Project MUSE offers nearly 200 quality journal titles from some 30 scholarly publishers. Project MUSE covers the fields of literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, economics, and many others. Project MUSE includes the full content of each journal with the exception of advertisements.

• Use Advanced Search and limit to a specific discipline. If you are doing research on broader topics, you may choose to not to limit to a discipline.

• Project Muse uses the same Library of Congress Subject Headings that you use to search the Libraries' online catalog.