American Dream: Secondary Sources:
Articles

A database is an online index to magazine and journal articles, book chapters, etc. Databases often provide access to full-text of articles.

Why Use a Database?

You use a database to save yourself time and effort!  A database scans thousands of journal and magazine issues to find articles that match your topic, so you don't have to look at individual pages and issues .  It shows exactly which issue has the article(s) on your topic. 

Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature across many disciplines.

MU Libraries have over 650 databases in all subject areas. 

Start here:

• Multidisciplinary Search: Find articles using the "Articles & Database" tab (40 EBSCO databases) on the library homepage. 

• Subject Databases: For scholary, subject specialized journal articles, use databases geared toward different disciplines.
     Examples of subject specific databases:
  • American History and Life
  • eMarketer - Aggregates, filters and analyzes research pertaining to the digital marketplace.   
              Example: Search "Millennials" and then click on "Reports"
  • Factiva
  • JSTOR
  • Lexis Nexis Academic
  • ProQuest Congressional - Mostly full-text.  Indexes congressional publications from 1789 to date.  Deselect "Congressional Record" option to eliminate speeches.  
              Example: students and "American dream"
  • Sociological Abstracts

• Discover @ MU is a simple Google-like search engine that searches articles, books, videos, etc.
   

  Keyword Title Author

  Limit Your Results

  Full Text

If you don't see a link to the PDF of an article, click on the Find It @MU icon  to find full-text.  Check out our FindIt@MU guide for detailed instructions.