Library Guides: Legal Studies 172AC, Decolonizing UC Berkeley: Finding Articles

Finding Article Databases

Search an article database to find citations (title, author, title of journal, date, page numbers) for articles on a particular topic. The Library gives you access to over 200 article databases covering different disciplines.

Think about which academic disciplines might write about your topic. Examples: literature, film, anthropology, history...
From the Library home page, click on "Find + borrow", select "Collections" from the dropdown menu, and choose the "Use Berkeley's electronic databases" box.
Select the appropriate academic disciplines and then look for "Recommended" databases.

Search Results - What's Next?

click on the title to see full record (including abstracts and descriptors)
to limit by publication type (peer-reviewed journals, conferences, books, etc.) click on the appropriate tab or link
if necessary,look for other limits (latest update, journal articles only, english only) and more advanced searches
select records to save to your personalized list; lists may be e-mailed, downloaded, printed

Get it at UC

Once you've searched an index to find articles, you may need to use Get it at UC to link to a PDF or html file if the full text is not immediately available. Each database is a bit different, but a good rule of thumb is:

When you see either icon, click on it to view your article access options (ex: full text, call number, Interlibrary Loan request, etc.)

Examples of News Article Databases

Ethnic NewsWatch (ENWH)
Index of over 200 ethnic, minority, and native press publications, including news, culture, and history topics. Searchable in English and Spanish. (ENWALL) [1960 - present]
Also includes a retrospective backfile of titles (1960-1989).
Alternative Press Index
Progressive, radical, and left North American magazines, newsletters, and journals. [1991 - present]
Approximately 90% of publications included are not indexed elsewhere. Indexes editorials, regular columns, essays, fiction; speeches, interviews, statistics, reprints; bibliographies, biographies, obituaries, memoirs; and reviews. Interfaces available for French, Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese. Alternative Press Index Archive provides coverage of materials from 1969 to 1990.
Leftist Historical Newspapers and Periodicals
A collection of 22 newspapers and periodicals supporting the ideology of communism, most published in the United States. Dates range from 1848 through 1978, with most coverage in the early 20th century. There are some gaps in coverage.
Left Index
A complete guide to the alternative, radical, and leftist literature, with an emphasis on political, economic, social and culturally engaged scholarship inside and outside academia. [1982 - present]
A few materials have been included since 1975, though most began in 1982.
Alt-Press Watch (APW)
Alternative, radical, and independent magazines, newspapers, and journals in North America. (AltPress Watch - altpresswatch) [1970 - present]
Reporting on politics and government, policy and culture, international issues, education, environment as well as reviews of theater, movies and books.
Indigenous Newspapers in North America
A collection of 45 national periodicals, local community news, and student publications from indigenous peoples of the U.S. and Canada. [1826-2016]
The bulk of titles were founded in the 1970s, documenting the proliferation of Indigenous journalism that grew out of the occupation of Wounded Knee, meeting the demand for objective reporting from within Indian Country.
San Francisco Chronicle Archive, Complete (historical and current)
Two searchable databases comprising the complete San Francisco Chronicle, Northern California's largest circulation newspaper. 1865-1984, page images from the print edition. 1985 onward, full-text from the electronic edition, lacking graphics.
Access World News
Full-text information and perspectives from U.S. and international news sources. (America's newspapers - NewsBank - global newsbank)
Provides full-text information and perspectives from over 600 U.S. and over 700 international sources. Offers strong regional coverage, indexing more than California newspapers such as Contra Costa Times (1995-current), Sacramento Bee (1984-current), San Francisco Chronicle (1985-current), and San Jose Mercury News (1985-current). Search categories include: California newspapers (121 titles), Greater Los Angeles (54 titles), major metropolitan titles (13 titles), Spanish-language news sources (48 titles), the World (almost 2000 titles), US (855 titles).
Nexis Uni (formerly LexisNexis Academic)
Full-text access to international, national, local newspapers, and wire services, as well as radio and television transcripts. Database also includes business, medical, industry, and legislative magazines, journals, and newsletters. Also includes laws from the U.S., all 50 states, and law reviews. Wide geographic coverage and translations from foreign-language sources, as well as news services like the Associated Press, Agence France Press, El Pai.
Nexis Uni allows users to set up personal accounts to personalize your research experience. Nexis Uni has replaced LexiNexis Academic. [dates vary]

Examples of Scholarly Article Databases

Bibliography of Indigenous Peoples in North America (BIPNA)
Indexes books, journal articles, essays, conference papers, and US government documents covering 17 broad regions comprising 290 ethnic groups of native North America. [1500 - present]
Contains and updates citations from the print counterpart, Ethnographic Bibliography of North America, 1941-1990. Contains more than 80,000 citations. Includes content from the sixteenth century to the present.
LegalTrac
Indexes major law reviews, legal newspapers, bar association journals, international legal journals. (Legal Trac) [1980 - present]
Also indexes law-related articles from hundreds of business and general interest titles.
Hein Online
Comprehensive legal research tool including access to the pdf full-text of complete runs of many legal journals, US statutes, codes, and congressional and executive documents, Supreme Court Library, state session laws and state statutes, the Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals, and many historical and international legal resources. The database is continually adding resources and expanding existing resources. Courtesy of Berkeley Law Library.
Provides full text to the early issues of many legal journals and law reviews, the Federal Register (1936-six months ago), US Supreme Court Library (1754-present) and treaties and agreements.

JSTOR

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Library home >Databases > Browse Databases > Browse: General Article Databases > JSTOR

Everyone Loves JSTOR:

interdisciplinary
scholarly
full text available AND searchable - you may find topics you won't find elsewhere because they're only part of an article on a related topic
covers journals from their earliest publication dates

CAUTIONS:

DOES NOT INCLUDE THE LAST 3-5 YEARS of a journal! not good for contemporary topics!
doesn't include as many journals in a particular discipline as the discipline-specific database (example: MLA Bibliography for literature)

Daily Cal

See the research guide for The Daily Californian

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Legal Studies 172AC, Decolonizing UC Berkeley