Search these databases first for scholarly articles about monsters. You might try others listed on this guide's "Articles" page as well. Use general search terms like "monsters" OR "imaginary animals," or specific terms for particular creatures - e.g., "vampire," "chupacabra," "Gorgon," etc. You could try combining those terms with the names of cities, regions, nations, and peoples if you are interested in monster legends from a particular place or culture.
Description: Full-text content from peer-reviewed journals and newsletters published by the American Anthropological Association (AAA).
Time Period: 1970's to present
Sources: Search or browse more than 30 different publications.
Subject Headings: Humanities, Philosophy & Religion, Science, Social Sciences
Primary Materials: Citations, Journal Articles, Reviews
Description: The eHRAF World Cultures database searches the Human Area Relations Files which provide detailed comparative analyses of 290 world cultures.
Time Period: 1949 to present
Sources: Searches more than 600,000 pages.
Subject Headings: Humanities, Social Sciences, Anthropology
Primary Materials: Books/e-books, Dissertation and Theses, Journal Articles, Other,
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
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
In addition to the more general encyclopedias and similar reference resources listed on this guide's "Encyclopedias, etc." page, you might find these, which are about monsters and mythical creatures more specifically, useful as well.
Below is a selection of books about monsters and mythical creatures. To find others, follow the instructions on this guide's "Books" page. You can use "monsters" as a search term, or the words for the specific kinds of monsters that interest you.