LibGuides: Fiction Criticism: Find Articles: Databases and Indexes

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The main page for the Ball State University Libraries.
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Databases

These databases index articles and documents from literary criticism journals or index information about writers and their works. Sometimes you will find the entire document or article in the database.

For help using the databases, please Ask a Librarian.

MLA International Bibliography
Description: MLA International Bibliography is an electronic version the print index published by the Modern Language Association beginning in the 1920's. Subjects include literature, language, folklore, linguistics, literary theory & criticism, and dramatic arts, as well as the historical aspects of printing and publishing. Contains some full text articles.
Time Period: 1926 to present
Sources: Indexes nearly 5,000 journals and series.
Subject Headings: English & Linguistics, Humanities, Mobile
Primary Materials: Journal Articles
Literature Resource Center
Description: Literature Resource Center is a great source for background information on major authors and their works. It includes biographies and basic literary criticism of the works of novelists, poets, essayists, journalists, and other writers, with in-depth coverage of the most-studied authors. Consider using in conjunction with Literature Criticism Online.
Time Period: 1973 to present
Sources: Indexes or contains the full text of more than 480 magazines or journals and 42 reference titles.
Subject Headings: English & Linguistics, Humanities
Academic Search Complete
Description: Good database for most research topics and contains lots of full text and peer reviewed articles.
Time Period: 1909 to present
Sources: Indexes nearly 20,000 Academic and peer reviewed journals and magazines and provides full text for more than 5,700.
Subject Headings: Art & Architecture, Business, Education, English & Linguistics, General, Health, History, Humanities, Law, Music, News, Philosophy & Religion, Psychology, Science, Social Sciences, Technology
Primary Materials: Abstracts, Case Studies, Citations, Conference Papers, Images, Journal Articles, Magazine Articles, News, Other, Reviews
JSTOR
Description: JSTOR allows you to search across approximately 2,000 journal titles from more than 50 disciplines. It contains complete backfiles of scholarly journals starting with the first issues, many of which date back from the 1800s. Although the majority of titles do not have the most recent 3 to 5 years available in full text, there are some which have the current issues available.

Note: Additional content has been permanently added to JSTOR, including archived journal collections and primary resources. Searches performed using the databases page link will include results from the additional sources, as will the link above.

Time Period: 19th century to present
Sources: Provides the full text for approximately 2,000 journals.
Subject Headings: Art & Architecture, Business, Education, English & Linguistics, General, Health, History, Humanities, Law, Mobile, Music, Philosophy & Religion, Psychology, Science, Social Sciences, Technology
Primary Materials: Citations, Journal Articles, Reviews
Project MUSE
Description: Project Muse is a full text database of journals in disciplines such as art, literature, history, political science, and economics. Some full text will come from JSTOR, in PDF format.
Time Period: 1993 to present
Sources: Indexes more than 300 journals.
Subject Headings: Art & Architecture, English & Linguistics, History, Humanities, Philosophy & Religion, Psychology
Primary Materials: Books/e-books, Citations, Journal Articles

Tip

If criticism of a particular work is difficult to find, look for general criticism of the author’s works, and apply what you read to the work you are studying.

Interlibrary loan and Find It @ Ball State

When searching for articles you will sometimes encounter the Find It @ BALL STATE button. It looks like this:

The MutliLink button appears in lieu of a link to PDF or HTML full text for some articles in the University Libraries' databases. It signifies that the full tex of the article it accompanies is not available in the database you're searching. There are three possibilities for obtaining the full text:

It is possible that the full text is available in a different database, and you can quickly link to it.
It is possible that the full text is not in any of the Libraries' databases, but it is available in print.
It is possible that the full text is not available at the University Libraries, but it could be obtained through interlibrary loan, though it might take a few days before it is delivered to you.

The first step is always clicking the Find It @ BALL STATE button. A new page will open in your browser. If the full text is available in a different database, that database's name will appear near the middle of the page under a "view online" heading, like this:

Click the name of the database. In most cases you will be taken to the article's abstract, which will be accompanied by a link to the full text.

When the full text is not available at the University Libraries you will see a "how to get it" heading, with a message about signing in to place holds below it. Below that area you will see a "link" heading and a link that says "Request the item with Interlibrary Loan / ILLiad."

Click the link to begin creating an interlibrary loan request for the article. If you have never signed into your interlibrary loan account before, you will have to complete a one-time registration form. Journal articles are usually delivered electronically, a process that can take several days. You can learn more about the service from our interlibrary loan research guide.