As a dynamic, on-going event, scholars are just beginning to analyze, interpret, and study the current Russian invasion of Ukraine. Use these databases to identify emerging studies about the war and its implications from a multidisciplinary perspective and within the context of specific discipline-based paradigms.
MULTIDISCIPLINARY DATABASES
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BASE [Bielefeld Academic Search Engine] -- a search engine developed by the Bielefeld University Library in Germany that indexes scholarly web resources. BASE currently provides access to more than 280 million documents from more than 9,000 content providers. It does not offer a full text search option, but the advanced search can be used to bring up sophisticated research results. An important resource for accessing free, open access documents that most commercial databases do not index.
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Brill Ukraine Resources -- a new resource from Brill, a major publisher of international law, economics, politics, and global affairs research based in The Netherlands, providing open-access to its books and journals relevant to the war in Ukraine.
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CEEOL: Central and Eastern European Online Library -- a repository of journal articles, ebooks, and grey literature in the humanities and social sciences, published in and about Eastern and Central Europe, including publications in native languages. Includes open access [freely available] publications.
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East Europe, Central Europe Database -- offers full-text academic journals that are locally published by scholarly publishing organizations and educational institutions in East European and Central European countries. Major subject areas of study are represented, including business, science, technology, engineering, social sciences, education, and humanities.
- JSTOR -- an multidisciplinary archive of scholarly, full-text social science, humanities, and science journals. Note that contents are a good source of historical research but does not cover current journal literature.
- Policy Commons -- platform for objective, fact-based research from the world’s leading policy experts, nonpartisan think tanks, and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations. The database provides advanced searching across millions of pages of books, articles, working papers, reports, policy briefs, data sets, tables, charts, media, case studies, and statistical publications, including archived reports from more than 200 defunct think tanks. Coverage is international in scope.
- ProQuest Multiple -- a multidisciplinary database that simultaneously searches thousands of newspaper, news magazine, and the contents of core scholarly journals representing a broad ranges of subject areas. Most articles are available full-text. Contents are updated daily. ProQuest is a very good place to begin your search.
SPECIFIC POPULATION GROUPS
Multidisciplinary databases that can be used to understand the impact of the war on particular groups.
- AgeLine -- provides aging-related research content from the health sciences, psychology, sociology, social work, economics, and public policy, and indexes journals, books, book chapters, reports, dissertations, consumer guides, and educational videos from 1978 to the present.
- Child Development and Adolescent Studies -- citations to social and behavioral sciences literature related to growth and development of children though the age of 21, including book reviews, abstracts from hundreds of journals, books, book chapters, and theses and dissertations. Key database for understanding the effects of war on children plus coverage on child rights and welfare issues.
- Family and Society Studies Worldwide -- comprehensive, systematic, and non-evaluative resource of research, policy, and practice literature in the fields of family science, human ecology, and human development. Records drawn from professional journals, books, conference papers, government reports, and other scholarly sources as well as popular literature.
- LGBTQ+ Life -- comprehensive resource to the world's literature regarding gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, and transsexual issues. Coverage includes traditional academic, lifestyle, and regional publications, as well as non-periodical content, such as, non-fiction books, bibliographies, and dissertations.
- Sociological Abstracts -- database for locating articles in the field of sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences obtained from more than 1,800 international journals as well as citations to book reviews drawn from thousands of publications, plus books, book chapters, dissertations, conference papers, and working papers. Coverage from 1952 to the present.
- Women's Studies International -- a research database for women’s studies and feminist research, providing indexing and abstracts to more than 810 journals, newsletters, bulletins, books, book chapters, research reports, and dissertations. It is a valuable resource for many disciplines, including sociology, history, human rights, and international relations.
BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS
These databases access research that relates to business and economics and can help identify studies about a particular company or industry impacted by the war, or, how certain industries profit from war.
- ABI/Inform Complete -- articles from leading business journals, magazines, trade publications, and newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times, covering all aspects of business and the private sector. Good source for studies about the relationship between the private sector and war.
- EconLit -- provides coverage of a wide range research literature related to economics, business economics, and social economics. Covers both theoretical and applied aspects of economics and related disciplines from the social sciences.
COMMUNICATIONS
Databases covering research in the fields of journalism and communication studies as well as the use of language. These are good sources for studies about the role of social media during the war and the rhetorical messaging during war.
- Communication Source -- a comprehensive source of communication-related journal articles, research reports, working papers, and books from a variety of publishers, research institutions, and information centers. Includes not only communication literature but also literature in other disciplines that is relevant to communication studies. Good source for studies about misinformation and disinformation.
- Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts -- accesses the international literature in linguistics and all aspects of the study of language, including descriptive, historical, comparative, theoretical, and geographical linguistics. Important database to understanding the use of language in communicating policy during war and the topic of propaganda.
ENVIRONMENT
Databases that provide access to studies on the environmental consequences of war.
- Environment Index – a comprehensive database with coverage in applicable areas of ecology, natural resources management, environmental law, public policy, social impact analysis, urban planning, and more from 1973 to the present.
- Pollution Abstracts -- combines information on scientific research and government policies from scholarly journals, conference proceedings, and technical reports. Topics of growing concern are extensively covered from the standpoints of effects on people and animals and environmental action in response to global pollution issues.
- Water Resources Abstracts [via Environmental Science Index] – provides summaries of the world's technical, scientific, and public policy literature on water-related topics covering the characteristics, conservation, control, pollution, treatment, use, and management of water resources as well as the legal aspects of water supply, use, control, or management.
ETHICS
Key database to understand moral and ethical issues related to war.
- Philosopher's Index -- a comprehensive database covering scholarly research in the fifteen fields of philosophy, published in journals and books since 1940. The database provides access to records from publications that date back to 1902 and originate from 139 countries in 37 languages. A good database for finding literature on the ethical questions of war and conflict.
HEALTHCARE
Databases that cover research in the areas of healthcare services and medicine. Use these to find research about the provision of healthcare during conflicts.
- CINAHL Complete -- comprehensive database offering full-text access to more than 1,300 nursing and allied health journals, with additional indexing of more than 5,400 journals, from 1937 to present. Provides thorough coverage of global peer-reviewed open access journals. Use this database to find studies about the role of nurses and allied health professionals during war [e.g., dental hygienists, clinical psychologists, occupational and physical therapists, rehabilitation counselors, speech language pathologists].
- Global Health -- covers all aspects of public health issues and policies at both international and community levels, as well as a wealth of material from other biomedical and life science fields.
- PubMed@USC -- a service of the National Library of Medicine, comprises more than 34 million citations for biomedical literature, life science journals, and online books from around the world. This version is customized for USC users to find the full-text of articles.
HISTORY
Databases to discover how historians have understood and analyzed the history of relations between Russia and Ukraine leading up to the current war.
- America: History and Life -- database that covers the history of the United States and Canada. It includes key English-language historic journals, selected historic journals from major countries, state and local history journals, and selected indexing of relevant journals in the social sciences and humanities. Useful for historical studies of U.S. relations with Ukraine and Russia.
- Historical Abstracts -- covers the history of the world (excluding the United States and Canada) from 1450 to the present. The database provides indexing of historical articles from more than 1,800 journals in over forty languages back to 1955 and access to the full text of more than 349 journals and more than 120 books.
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
Key databases for conducting research in the area of international relations. Click on the Finding Articles in Databases tab in this guide for a complete list of IR databases.
- Columbia International Affairs Online [CIAO] -- provides the full text of a wide range of scholarship books, working papers from universities and research institutes, occasional papers series from NGOs, foundation-funded research projects, and proceedings from conferences.
- IREON Portal -- contains more than 5 million references covering topics, such as, foreign and security policy, business administration, economics and business practice, international cooperation and development policy, European politics and transatlantic relations, regional and country studies worldwide, foreign cultural policy, and climate and environment, energy. NOTE: Your browser may post a security warning when clicking on the site, but this is only due to an unfamiliar domain designation [de] and not a true security risk to your computer.
- Public Affairs Information Services [PAIS] -- indexes selective subjects and bibliographic access to journal and magazine articles, books, research reports, gray literature, U.S. Congressional hearings and other government publications, Internet resources, and other publications from 120 countries. Includes historical coverage from 1915 to the present and therefore, can be a good source for understanding relevant research published at certain moments in history.
LAW
Databases that provide access to studies about the legal aspects of war.
- European Justice -- provides access to information on justice systems and justice throughout the European Union. The database covers legal information regarding family matters for cross-border issues, detailed information on the process of taking legal action in the EU, various pages pertaining to EU citizens' rights, and applicable legislation to EU citizens and case law judgements.
- HeinOnline Foreign and International Law Resources Database -- [from law library e-resources list] includes the publications of the American Society of International Law along with prominent international law yearbooks from around the world, including the Hague Permanent Court of International Justice series. It also includes U.S. Law Digests, International Tribunals/Judicial Decisions, and more.
- HeinOnline Law Journal Library -- provides full text access to digitized content of major legal research journals. This is where to go to find legal analysis of the war and war in the context of international treaty instruments and human rights and other relevant law.
- Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals -- [from law library e-resources list] a multilingual index to articles and book reviews published worldwide. The database covers international (public and private), comparative, and municipal law of countries other than the United States, the U.K., Canada, and Australia. Excellent source for legal analysis outside of the English-speaking world.
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International Criminal Court -- investigates and, where warranted, tries individuals charged with the gravest crimes of concern to the international community: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression.
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Nations of the World - Library of Congress -- an annotated guide to sources of information on government and law. Includes selected links to useful and reliable sites for legal information for different nations, including both Ukraine and Russia.
MILITARY STUDIES
These databases access research about the history of war and society, military practices and institutions, and politico-military affairs.
- Air University Library Index to Military Periodicals -- an index to significant articles, news items, book reviews and editorials from sixty-three English language military and aeronautical periodicals. Coverage from 1988 to the present with content updated continuously.
- Military Database -- covers topics across all government and military branches, including international relations, political science, criminology, defense, aeronautics and space flight, communications, civil engineering, and more. Included among its contents are scholarly journals, trade and industry journals, magazines, technical reports, conference proceedings, government publications, and more.
- Military and Intelligence Database Collection -- provides access to scholarly journals, magazines, and reports covering all aspects of the past and current state of military affairs. The database offers content in key subject areas including governmental policies, the socioeconomic effects of war, the structure of the armed forces, and more.
- SIPRI Yearbook -- provides an overview of developments in international security, weapons and technology, military expenditure, the arms trade and arms production, and armed conflicts, along with efforts to control conventional, nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
POLITICS AND PUBLIC POLICY
Databases for locating studies on policy-making and politics. Useful for understanding the role of politics, political parties, and the administration of government before and during the war.
- Public Administration Abstracts -- provides information on public administration-related publications worldwide covering such areas as administration and economy, administration and politics, administration and society, administrative structures and organization, public and social services, public service personnel, and theory and method.
- Worldwide Political Science Abstracts -- indexes international journal literature in political science and its complementary fields, including international relations, law, and public administration and policy. Over 1,700 titles are monitored for coverage and, of these, 67% are published outside of the United States. Essential for understanding the political dimensions of war.
PSYCHOLOGY
Comprehensive databases for locating studies about the psychological related to the war and its consequences on personal well-being.
- PsycInfo -- provides access to international literature of journals, books and book chapters, and dissertations in psychology and related behavioral and social sciences, including psychiatry, sociology, anthropology, education, pharmacology, and linguistics, from 1887 to the present. Good source for finding research about the psychological effects of war and recovery.
- Violence and Abuse Abstracts -- covers essential topics related to the study of the legal, medical, psychological, and social aspects of all types of interpersonal violence, including child abuse, domestic violence, rape and sexual harassment, gang violence, and elder abuse. Coverage dates from 1986 to the present. Helpful for accessing studies concerning personal violence and abuse that occurs during war.
Using Google Scholar to Expand Your Search Results
A useful strategy to expand the number of studies you find about your topic is to paste into Google Scholar the title of a relevant article or research report you find from searching a database.
Before doing this, though, go to the the USC Libraries’ main web page and sign in to the proxy server using DUO authentication, then link to Google Scholar by scrolling down under "Database Quick Links." This ensures you can access the full-text of anything you find.
If the title of the article, book, or research report appears in Google Scholar, look to see if anyone has subsequently cited that item by clicking on the “Cited by” link followed by a number just below the record [e.g., "Cited by 145"]. The number indicates how many times the original source has subsequently been cited by other authors in other studies. This is an excellent way to expand the scope of your review of the literature by locating related, more recently published research on your topic.
Descriptions of resources are adapted or quoted from vendor websites.