"question mark" by BAMCorp is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
Indexing databases index literature from many different publishers worldwide, giving you the reference details and the abstracts of articles. Usually, articles that you find by using databases containing full-text, such as Science Direct, Wiley Online Library, or Academic Search Complete, will be indexed in one of the indexing databases. Full-text collections are smaller, so if you're doing a thorough literature search to find out what's been published on your topic, you need to use the big indexing databases. There are databases that are interdisciplinary and ones that are subject specific. You will need both when doing a thorough literature search.
Databases are listed under subject groupings below, including relevant interdisciplinary databases. Please note that many of these are a mixture of index and full-text content. This is not a comprehensive list of the databases available; other subject specific databases can be found in the relevant subject guides. Please also keep in mind that there may be reason to look at databases from other subject areas, such as business, law or psychology, depending on the nature of your research topic.
