Databases & Periodical Indexes for Afro American Studies

The online databases and periodical indexes below can help you search for full-text articles or allow you to locate citation information for articles in Afro American Studies. If you are not sure which database to choose, please contact a reference librarian. For library databases in all subjects, go to the database locator.

Please note: Many of our electronic resources have restricted access from off-campus and are only available to UMass-Amherst students, faculty or staff with a UMAccess account.

Tip: Use the Database Searching Log to keep track of your searches and search strategies in different databases.

• Academic Search Premier - Citations, abstracts and full text articles from scholarly and general-interest periodicals relating to social sciences, humanities, education, physical, and biological sciences.
  
  
• African American Biographical Database -  Biographies of thousands of African Americans assembled from biographical dictionaries and other sources. Includes African American activists, business people, former slaves, performing artists, educators, lawyers, physicians, writers, church leaders, homemakers, religious workers, government workers, athletes, farmers, scientists, factory workers, and more -- both the famous and the everyday person. Useful to an understanding of the African  American experience over the last two centuries.

• African American Newspapers: The 19th Century - Starting with the Freedom’s Journal in 1827 and continuing in chronological order with the monthly addition of  new text, this database plans to ultimately contain the complete text of the major African American newspapers published in the United States during the 19th century. Currently contains the following newspapers: Freedom's Journal, The Coloured American, The North Star, The National Era, Provincial Freeman, Frederick Douglass Paper, and The Christian Recorder. This material was written by African Americans for African Americans. 

• African American Song - Audio database which documents African American music, including jazz, blues, gospel, ragtime, folk songs, and narratives, from the Document Records label. Browse by category of music, region, genre, instrument, artist, ensemble, and time period. A playlist option is available.

• America: History and Life - Citation information and abstracts for journal articles, dissertations and book reviews on United States and Canadian history, from over 2,000 journals published since 1964.

• Arts and Humanities Citation Index (ISI Web of Science) - Citations and some abstracts covering the journal literature of the arts and humanities. It indexes 1,144 of the world's leading arts and humanities journals, as well as covering individually selected, relevant items from over 6,800 major science and social science journals. Unique features include cited references (lists of records cited by the documents found); citing articles (lists of records that cite the documents found), and related records (lists of records that share common references with the documents found).

• Biography Resource Center - Biographical entries compiled from several publications, including the entire Marquis Who's Who series, plus some periodical articles.

• Black Studies Center - combines several resources for research and teaching in Black Studies: Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience, International Index to Black Periodicals (IIBP), The Chicago Defender, and the Black Literature Index. IIBP provided indexing and abstracting of 150 African, American and Caribbean periodicals, with full text of forty core journals. The Chicago Defender was at one point the most widely-read black newspaper in the country, with more than two thirds of its readership based outside Chicago.

• Black Thought and Culture - Monographs, essays, articles, speeches, and interviews written by leaders within the black community from the earliest times to 1975.

• Contemporary Women's Issues - Citations, abstracts and full text access to over 200 domestic and international women's organizations, from a mix of mainstream periodicals, "gray" literature and the alternative press.

• Dissertation Abstracts/ Digital Dissertations - Citations and abstracts of doctoral and some maters theses, mostly completed in colleges and universities of the United States and Canada. Full text access to UMass dissertations.

• Ethnic Newswatch - Full-text collection of newspapers, magazines and journals of the contemporary (20th and 21st century) ethnic, minority and native press. Search can be focussed by choosing "AFRICAN AMERICAN/ CARIBBEAN/ AFRICAN" in ethnic group of publication.

• Expanded Academic Index - Articles from more than 1,500 scholarly journals and general interest magazines in the humanities, social sciences and general sciences, many in full text.

• Historical Abstracts - Citations and abstracts for articles and book reviews from over 2,000 journals published since 1954, on all aspects of world history from 1450 to present (excluding the Untied States and Canada). Publications are in over 50 languages; article titles and abstracts are included in English translation.

• International Index to Black Periodicals - Indexing and abstracting of 150 African, American and Caribbean periodicals, with full text of forty core journals, some dating back to the early 1900s. (Now within Black Studies Center, above.)
  
  
• International Index to Music Periodicals - Citations and abstracts from scholarly and popular music periodicals. Current content from 327 international music periodicals from over 20 countries, including retrospective coverage from over 165 periodicals dating back as far as 1874.

• International Political Science Abstracts - Citations and abstracts from approximately 900 journals and yearbooks in the fields of political science, international relations, public administration, and public law.

• JSTOR - Full-text collection of about 160 core scholarly journals in various academic disciplines, including African American Studies, from their first issues to between two and five years to the present.

• MLA Bibliography - Citations and abstracts to journal articles, books, book chapters and dissertations in the fields of literature, literary theory, linguistics and folklore.

• Project Muse - Full-text online collection of over 100 journals in the humanities, social sciences and mathematics. Issues from 1996 to the present are included.

• Social Science Citation Index (ISI Web of Science) - Citations and abstracts covering the journal literature of the social sciences. It indexes more than 1,725 journals spanning 50 disciplines, as well as covering individually selected, relevant items from over 3,300 of the world's leading scientific and technical journals. Unique features include cited references (lists of records cited by the documents found); citing articles (lists of records that cite the documents found), and related records (lists of records that share common references with the documents found).

• Sociological Abstracts- Citation information and abstract to journal articles and books in sociology and related disciplines (anthropology, economics, education, medicine, philosophy, social psychology, etc.) from 2,500 journals in 30 languages. The database also includes abstracts of sociological conference papers, relevant dissertation listings, and citations to book reviews.