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

This guide provides an overview of resources in French and Francophone Studies. It can be used in tandem with research guides specifically created in support of courses offered in the French curriculum.

About this page

French and Francophone studies are multidisciplinary and require different research strategies depending on the scope and focus of any specific topic.   The USC Libraries provide access to over 113,800 serials in print and electronic formats.   The databases listed on this page provide only a small, illustrative sampling of resources and research in French and Francophone studies published in journals, or available in collections, worldwide. 

Should you need assistance in locating specific materials relating to your research, or should you need assistance in defining your search strategy for an assignment, you are most welcome to touch base with me:  dmihram@usc.edu

Major Databases for French Studies

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

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.