Research Guides: Native American and Indigenous Studies *: Databases & Journals

Core Article Databases

Start with these databases:

America: History & Life with Full Text This link opens in a new window
The definitive index to articles and other literature (books, dissertations, book reviews, etc.) covering the history and culture of the U.S. and Canada, from the 15th century to the present. Indexes nearly 1,800 journals from 1860s to present, including all key journals in the discipline, state and local history publications, and selected articles from scholarly journals in the social sciences and humanities.
Bibliography of Native North Americans This link opens in a new window
From the Human Relations Area Files (HRAF), this is an electronic publication that contains the citations from the cumulative eight volumes of the Ethnographic Bibliography of North America as well as additional new citations.
The Bibliography of Native North Americans contains citations to literature about native peoples of North America published from the sixteenth century to the present. Native North Americans include Aleuts; Eskimos or Inuit of Greenland, northern Canada, Alaska, and eastern Siberia; and other native peoples (i.e. "Indians") of Alaska, Canada, the United States, and Mexico north of the northern boundary of Mesoamerica. All citations are to published materials: books, journal articles, essays, conference papers, and US and Canadian government documents.
Anthropology Plus This link opens in a new window
Anthropology Plus brings together into one resource the highly respected Anthropological Literature from Harvard University and Anthropological Index, Royal Anthropological Institute from the UK.
It offers worldwide indexing of all core periodicals, in addition to lesser known journals, from the early 19th century to today; Provides extensive worldwide indexing of journal articles, reports, commentaries, edited works and obituaries in the fields of social, cultural, physical, biological and linguistic anthropology, ethnology, archaeology, folklore, material culture and interdisciplinary studies.
AnthroSource This link opens in a new window
Provides full text access to publications from the American Anthropological Association. Some coverage on medical anthropology and ethnoarchaeology. Good for sociocultural and linguistic anthropology.
eHRAF Archaeology This link opens in a new window
Human Relations Area Files (HRAF). eHRAF Archaeology is an online cross-cultural database containing information on world’s prehistory. The database is organized by archaeological traditions and the documents are subject-indexed at the paragraph level. eHRAF Archaeology is a unique resource designed to facilitate comparative archaeological studies.
eHRAF World Cultures This link opens in a new window
Human Relations Area Files (HRAF). eHRAF World Cultures is an online cross-cultural and ethnographic database that contains descriptive information on all aspects of cultural and social life. The database is organized by cultures and ethnic groups, and every document is subject-indexed at the paragraph level, facilitating precise retrieval within documents.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
A growing full text collection of core social science, humanities, and science journals and books.

Native Land Website
Provides links to nation, language, or treaty information.
National Indian Council On Aging, Inc. (NICOA)

Next Try These Multidisciplinary Databases

Multidisciplinary databases are extremely useful for finding articles published in interdisciplinary journals or in journals outiside a given discipline that may still be relevant to your research topic.

In addition to containing journal articles, many of these database also provide citations for (or full-text access to) books, book chapters, dissertations, and conference proceedings, which allows you to cast a wider net in your effort to find sources.

Academic OneFile This link opens in a new window
Contains more than 14,000 titles, including more than 9,000 peer-reviewed journals and more than 6,000 in full text. Updated daily
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.
ArticleFirst This link opens in a new window
(1990-present)
An index to the table of contents and holdings information from more than 16,000 journals in the social science, business, the humanities, popular culture, science, and technology. Updated daily.
Arts & Humanities Full Text This link opens in a new window
This database features hundreds of titles covering Art, Architecture, Design, History, Philosophy, Music, Literature, Theatre and Cultural Studies.
It is designed to complement the following indexes: ABM, Avery, BHA, BHI, DAAI, Index Islamicus, MLA, Philosopher's Index and RILM.
Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Use Google Scholar to find articles from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as scholarly articles freely available on the web.

You first need to add USC as a library link in order to get direct access to USC's full-text subscription content from the Google Scholar results page. This option can be found under the Scholar Settings link option in the upper right hand corner of the home page or results page.
PIO - Periodicals Index Online This link opens in a new window
Dates vary by publication. Does not include current content
An index to millions of articles published in over 6000 periodicals in the humanities and social sciences, going back over 300 years. It covers 37 key subject areas in the humanities and social sciences and offers a variety within these subject areas.
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.
Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Provides access to the complete content (including all images) of hundreds of 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.
Web of Science This link opens in a new window
A multidisciplinary database that includes Social Science Citation Index and Arts & Humanities Citation Index
OmniFile Full Text Mega (H.W. Wilson) This link opens in a new window
A multidisciplinary database providing citations and full text articles, book reviews, and more
With the full text of articles from over 2,500 publications, and indexing and abstracts from nearly 3,600 publications, this database provides invaluable support for research in all core undergraduate subjects and for cross-disciplinary work.

Selected Scholarly Journals

American Indian Culture and Research Journal Peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary journal on indigenous peoples of North America

American Indian Quarterly Peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary journal of the anthropology, history, literatures, religions, and arts of Native Americans

American Quarterly Peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary perspectives on the study of American culture

differences Peer-reviewed publication with focus on how concepts of difference operate within culture

Demography Interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journal of general interest articles for population scientists

Ethnic & Racial Studies An interdisciplinary international academic forum for the presentation of peer-reviewed research and theoretical analysis, drawing on sociology, social policy, anthropology, political science, economics, international relations, history and social psychology

Ethnohistory Peer-reviewed Duke University publication emphasizes the joint use of documentary materials and ethnographic or archeological data, as well as the combination of historical and anthropological approaches, in the study of social and cultural processes and history. It publishes articles, review essays, and book reviews by scholars in anthropology, history, archeology, linguistics, literature and art history, geography, and other disciplines and is read by historians and anthropologists alike

Ethnomusicology This official organ of the Society for Ethnomusicology contains scholarly articles on the wide variety of cultural study areas, theoretical questions and interdisciplinary approaches characteristic of the field of ethnomusicology

Journal of American Ethnic History Peer-reviewed publication of the University of Illinois Press that addresses various aspects of American ethnic history

Journal of American History Leading scholarly journal in the field of American history

Journal of American Studies Peer-reviewed journal of art, literature, and popular culture

Journal of Contemporary Ethnography International peer-reviewed journal dedicated to ethnography and qualitative research

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Peer-reviewed journal presenting research on all forms of migration and its consequences, together with articles on ethnic conflict, discrimination, racism, nationalism, citizenship and policies of integration

Journal of the Early Republic Peer-reviewed journal covering Early United States history and culture

MELUS Scholarly journal dedicated to multi-ethnic literature in English

Oral History Review This official publication of the Oral History Association explores oral history of people who have participated in important political, cultural, and economic social developments in modern times

Sociological Quarterly Scholarly research and theory in all areas of sociological inquiry

Find out if USC has a Specific Journal

If you are looking for a specific journal, select Journals on the Libraries homepage:

If you have the exact title of the journal, search for the title and on the Results page, select "Sort by: Title":

If we have online access to this publication you'll see one or more results, with the dates available and the name of the database or publisher linking you to the journal. If we have the journal in print or on microfilm you will see location information under the "Availability" section of the item record.