LibGuides: Margaret Smith Library, SAIAB: Databases

What is a database?

Using a database

A library database provides specific information about what is inside journals or books.

In general, you use a database to find what has been published on a topic and parts of publications

articles
essays
chapters of books
conference papers
material that is difficult to obtain/unpublished (e.g.: theses) often referred to as 'grey literature'

Links not marked Open Access (OA) require Rhodes University Library authorised access through your library login.

Directory of Open Access Journals
Open Access
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DOAJ is a community-curated online directory that indexes and provides access to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals. DOAJ is independent.

Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Citation database covering scholarly journal literature in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities. Search interface allows cross-searching of BIOSIS Previews, Medline, Zoological Record, Web of Science Core Collection, and others.
Users can search by cited reference, author, topic, publication name, and more. Results can be analyzed by document type, institution name, source title, and subject area.
ScienceDirect This link opens in a new window
ScienceDirect from Elsevier offers cross-searchable access to the full-text of over 2000 journals and several reference books. Remember that you can also search ScienceDirect on Scopus.
Scopus This link opens in a new window
Citation database of peer-reviewed literature: scientific journals, books and conference proceedings.
Covers the fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and arts and humanities. Comprised of 21,000 titles from more than 5,000 international publishers. Exporting data to Reference Managers such as Mendeley, RefWorks and EndNote, tracking citations with Citation Overview/Tracker, analyzing journal performance with Journal Analyzer and alternative journal impact metrics SNIP and SJR are some of its unique features.

Why use a database to search for articles when you can simply “Google” something? Here's why!

Searchable collections include abstracts (short summaries) and citations (references) to articles in journals and newspapers; also include other publications like conference papers and chapters in books
Verified academic sources indexed to retrieve the most relevant results by subject or type of publication.
No irrelevant information like advertisements.
Links to older material Many sources such as journal back issues in print are not available on the open Internet; use the databases to link to older RU Library subscriptions.
Search simulataneously across many years and many publications instead of browsing through individual publications (imagine going through years and years of every issue of a journal).
Links to full-text articles from many database records.

Why use the Rhodes Library Google Scholar link when you can simply "Google" something? Here's why!

Searching for information via Rhodes University Library lets you access Rhodes Library subscribed journals
You can view the full text of the articles to these subscribed journals
Google Scholar is also a quick way to review the literature and find scholarly/academic research information