Essential Databases at USC (for French Studies) - French and Francophone Studies - A Research Guide to Resources - Research Guides at University of Southern California

Major Databases for French Studies

Academic OneFile This link opens in a new window
Academic OneFile is the premier source for peer-reviewed, full-text articles from the world's leading journals and reference sources.
With extensive coverage of the physical sciences, technology, medicine, social sciences, the arts, theology, literature and other subjects, Academic OneFile is both authoritative and comprehensive. With millions of articles available in both PDF and HTML full-text with no restrictions, researchers are able to find accurate information quickly. Includes full-text coverage of the New York Times back to 1995. Updated daily.
Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Credo Reference is a digital reference library that places a world of factual information at your fingertips. Containing a selection from 645 high-quality reference books from the world's leading publishers, Credo Reference is the ideal place to start any research.
FRANCIS This link opens in a new window
Multilingual, multidisciplinary information in the humanities (63%), social sciences (33%), and economics (4%).
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Complete full-text coverage includes core scholarly journals and books in anthropology, Asian studies, biology, ecology, economics, education, finance, history, literature, mathematics, philosophy, political science, population studies, and sociology. Some backfiles date back to the early 1800s. The most recently published issues (past 3-5 years) are not available.
Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window
Biographies, bibliographies and critical analysis of authors from every age and literary discipline.
Covers more than 90,000 novelists, poets, essayists, journalists and other writers. Integrating the Contemporary Authors, Dictionary of Literary Biography, Contemporary Literary Criticism, Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism, Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism, Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, Shakespearean Criticism, Drama Criticism, Poetry Criticism, Short Story Criticism, Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800, and Children\'s Literature Review, this database is augmented with full-text critical material. Biographical information is also included for screenwriters, journalists, and nonfiction writers. For copyright reasons, some material from the print resources listed above may not be available in full-text.
The Literature Resource center includes the full text of Merriam-Webster
MLA Directory of Periodicals This link opens in a new window
The MLA Directory of Periodicals provides information on over 6,000 journals and book series that cover literature, literary theory, dramatic arts, folklore, language, linguistics, pedagogy, rhetoric and composition, and the history of printing and publishing. Articles published in works listed in the directory are indexed in the MLA International Bibliography..
MLA International Bibliography with Full Text This link opens in a new window
The online Modern Languages Association International Bibliography indexes critical scholarship worldwide on literature, languages, linguistics and folklore (1963-present). See: Using the MLA International Bibliography - https://www.mla.org/Publications/MLA-International-Bibliography/Using-the-MLA-International-Bibliography
Provides records from over 4000 international publications including journals, books, series, dissertations, bibliographies, working papers, proceedings, and other materials. It does not include book reviews. Indexing only: no full text.
For Full Text articles in the MLA Bibliography use the Proquest and the ProQuest Research Library Databases.
Available in paper format from 1921-1996 at Grand Depository, call number: Z7006.M64
Oxford Bibliographies Online This link opens in a new window
Developed cooperatively with scholars and librarians worldwide, Oxford Bibliographies offers exclusive, authoritative research guides.
Combining the best features of an annotated bibliography and a high-level encyclopedia, this cutting-edge resource guides researchers to the best available scholarship across a wide variety of subjects.
Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
MUSE provides access to the complete content (including all images) of nearly 500 current scholarly journals in the humanities and social sciences.
As of January 2012, Project Muse has added thousands of University Press ebooks to its collection. However, USC DOES NOT have access to them. If you are interested in one of these titles, please search Homer or Quick Search to see if we have a copy.
ProQuest This link opens in a new window
Databases of resources for arts, business, humanities, social sciences, science and newspaper resources.
ProQuest Research Library This link opens in a new window
ProQuest Research Library is a multi-disciplinary index suitable for both undergraduates and graduate students.
It covers dozens of subject areas and indexes thousands of general and scholarly titles and provides full-text for a significant number of the articles included. It is an excellent starting place for research for a paper, particularly if one isn't sure where to begin their research.

Teaching French

OER Commons - Open Textbooks by Subject. For French texts select "Arts and Humanities", then search by keyword ("French"). A complementary site is: Open Textbook Library. Select by Subject, "Humanities" then "Languages", and then search by keyword: "French."

LibreTexts French. A small selection of open access resources for English speakers learning French.

Complementary Databases - A Sampling

Academic OneFile This link opens in a new window
Provides access to some 11,000 journals with full-text articles from more than 4,000 peer-reviewed journals and reference sources worldwide. 1980 - present.
With extensive coverage of the physical sciences, technology, medicine, social sciences, the arts, theology, literature and other subjects, Academic OneFile is both authoritative and comprehensive. With millions of articles available in both PDF and HTML full-text with no restrictions, researchers are able to find accurate information quickly. Includes full-text coverage of the New York Times back to 1995. Updated daily.
Essay and General Literature Index (H.W. Wilson) This link opens in a new window
Cites records contained in collections of essays and miscellaneous works published in the United States, Great Britain, and Canada. More than 320 single and multi-authored volumes are indexed annually with more than 20 selected annuals and serial publications.
More than 320 single and multi-authored volumes are indexed annually with more than 20 selected annuals and serial publications.
Essay and General Literature Retrospective (H.W. Wilson) This link opens in a new window
Essay and General Literature Index Retrospective is a bibliographic database that cites essays, articles and miscellaneous works published in the United States, Great Britain, and Canada.
It covers 8 Centuries (1900-1984) of essays, annuals and serial publications from the 20th Century.
Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Allows search for scholarly literature across a variety of disciplines and providers including academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations.
HathiTrust This link opens in a new window
Scans of public domain books across all subject areas which can be downloaded in their entirety. To enable downloads, please click the “Log In” button and select “University of Southern California” from the dropdown list. You will then be prompted for your USC NetID and password and validated via Shibboleth. You will also find records for works still in copyright, but these can only be searched, not viewed or downloaded.
Periodicals Archive Online (PAO) This link opens in a new window
Provides archive of digitized journals published in the arts, humanities and social sciences. It has been indexed in its sister database, Periodicals Index Online.
The database spans more than two centuries of content, 37 key subject areas, and multiple languages.
Philosopher's Index This link opens in a new window
Offers informative, author-written abstracts covering scholarly research in all areas of philosophy. The literature covered goes back to 1940 and includes journal articles, books, book chapters such as contributions to an anthology and book reviews.
PIO - Periodicals Index Online This link opens in a new window
Periodicals Index Online is an electronic index to millions of articles published in over 5,500 periodicals in the humanities and social sciences.
Periodicals Index Online is unique in combining a broad subject base with deep chronological coverage going back over 300 years. It covers 37 key subject areas in the humanities and social sciences and offers vast variety within these subject areas. Periodicals Index Online currently indexes over 18 million articles going as far back as 1665 and every article in each journal is indexed, from volume 1 issue 1 to recent times. Cataloging in Periodicals Index Online is not limited by language or by date. Over three centuries of scholarly publication in 40 languages and dialects are indexed, including English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and other Western languages.
Readers' Guide Full Text Mega (H.W. Wilson) This link opens in a new window
Readers' Guide Full Text Mega includes indexing of over 450 periodicals as far back as 1983 and searchable full text of articles from over 250 journals as far back as 1994.
Subject coverage includes antiques, arts, business, computers, education, entertainment, film & television, gardening, health & medicine, history, home improvement, literature, news & current events, photography, popular & classical music, politics, popular culture, religion, science, sports & fitness, transportation, travel and much more.
Short Story Index (H.W. Wilson) This link opens in a new window
This product's aim is to index all the important collections and anthologies of short stories that are published each year.
All literary genres are covered. Approximately 200+ monographs are captured per year, with approximately 3,000-4,000 analytics (chapters/stories).

Dissertations and Theses

DART-Europe E-theses Portal DART-Europe is a partnership of research libraries and library consortia who are working together to improve global access to European research theses. DART-Europe is endorsed by LIBER (Ligue des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche), and it is the European Working Group of the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD).The DART-Europe partners help to provide researchers with a single European Portal for the discovery of Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs), and they participate in advocacy to influence future European e-theses developments.

Dissertations & Theses {Proquest] ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global is the world's most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses from around the world, spanning from 1743 to the present day and offering full text for graduate works added since 1997, along with selected full text for works written prior to 1997. It contains a significant amount of new international dissertations and theses both in citations and in full text. Nearly one million dissertations and theses are available for download in PDF format.

Open Access Dissertations OATD.org aims to be the best possible resource for finding open access graduate theses and dissertations published around the world. Metadata (information about the theses) comes from over 1000 colleges, universities, and research institutions. OATD currently indexes 4,817,991 theses and dissertations.

French and Francophone Studies - A Research Guide to Resources: Essential Databases at USC (for French Studies)

About this page

Major Databases for French Studies

Teaching French

Complementary Databases - A Sampling

Dissertations and Theses