Guides: International Development: Article databases

Introduction

These databases - mostly bibliographic rather than fulltext - will identify the journal article literature on aspects of international development, as well as books, book chapters, and other material. They may cover gray literature - technical reports, project reports, conference papers, and other informally published materials. Most of these databases will link to fulltext through the PennText Article Finder.

Good First-stop Article Databases

These databases identify articles published in particular disciplines. You may need to use PennText to search for the article online or in print, or to request it from another library.

Just look for the PennText icon after the results from your database search:

GEOBASE
A wideranging bibliographic database on human and physical geography. Incorporates International Development Abstracts, covering agriculture and rural development; environment and development; industrial policy; social policies such as health, housing, and education; health, demography; gender and culture; aid, international relations and politics.
HINT! To restrict your GEOBASE searching to International Development Abstracts, add this classification code string to your "expert search":
((74*) WN CL)
• GEOBASE Classification Codes (PDF)
CAB Abstracts
1910-present. Covers the research and development literature on agriculture, forestry, human health and nutrition, animal health, and natural resource conservation and management. Produced by CABI, formerly Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux - so especially strong on former British colonies. Includes WAERSA (World Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology Abstracts).
HINT! Use this search string to restrict your results to WAERSA:
(0r or 2r or xr).ss.
HINT! CABICODES are classification codes that serve as "chapter titles" for big chunks of CAB Abstracts. They're handy for quickly pulling out a bunch of articles on a general topic, if you're interested in a country. Use the .cc. field code to search CABICODES:
(nn700 OR pp600 OR xx*).cc. for pollution and waste management
• CABICODES Classification Codes (PDF)
IBSS - International Bibliography of the Social Sciences
1951-present. Bibliographic citations and subject indexing for the international journal article and book literature in anthropology, economics, political science, and sociology.
Sociological Abstracts
Sociological Abstracts's mainstream sociology, demography, and social psychology coverage has absorbed the ceased Social Services Abstracts database covering social policy, social welfare, and social work .
PAIS
Covers contemporary public policy issues worldwide, 1915-present. Indexes articles, books, government documents, and grey literature. "Contemporary" = Indexed articles will address topics relevant to the time they were written.
Historical Abstracts
Historical coverage of the world from 1450 to the present (excluding the United States and Canada). Try your country as a subject term; if you have too many results to sort through, try adding "health" as a keyword. For U.S. and Canadian history, search HistAbs' counterpart, America, History & Life.
HINT! HistAbs advanced search page offers searching by date as subject.
Anthropology PLUS
Two research library catalogues with journal article indexing included, covering anthropology, ethnography, and archaeology from the mid-19th century to today. Difficult to use, as the Tozzer Library and the Library of the Royal Anthropological Institute use different subject headings and the database offers no de-duplication.
HST - History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
International bibliography on the history of science, prehistory to present. Try searching with your country name as either subject term or keyword.

Multidisciplinary and regional article databases

Multidisciplinary and regional databases are powerful tools for finding articles. HOWEVER, it can be difficult to determine the disciplinary focus of an article you find. Don't assume that an article is in a particular discipline until you check with an expert.

African Studies Centre, Leiden, Catalogue
Much bigger and more important than you'd think from the title! The Leiden ASC library supports a major research center on African political economy, and its catalogue describes journal articles - NOT like Franklin. BEWARE! Don't use the "ASC Link" buttons to request materials - instead DO USE Franklin and PennText to find materials you identify in the Leiden catalogue.
Handbook of Latin American Studies
1936-present. Produced by the Library of Congress as a "selective" annotated bibliography covering anthropology (including archaeology, ethnohistory and ethnology), art, economics, geography, government and politics, history, international relations, literature, music, philosophy, and sociology.
Bibliography of Asian Studies
1971-present. Covers western-language scholarly works on East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.
Index Islamicus
Although primarily focused on scholarly works on Islam and its adherents, Index Islamicus includes broad coverage of countries in which Islam is practiced.

Economics and Business Specific Article Databases

EconLit
1969-present. Covers the English-language accounting, consumer economics, monetary policy, labor, demographics, modeling, economic theory, and planning.
HINT! Use the JEL Classification codes to search by subject.

ABI/Inform Global
An excellent business-focused database, with good fulltext coverage. Covers scholarly business journals, trade periodicals, and other materials. Recently added citations and links to SSRN working papers.
Labordoc: Catalog of the ILO Library
Late 19th century-present, many links to fulltext. More than a library catalog! Indexes all International Labour Organization journals, books, documents, and reports, and also more than 400 labor-related journals. Covers labor related topics, including employment, labor relations, labor law, working conditions, women workers, child labor, migrant workers, and economic and social rights.

EconPapers
Working papers - in many cases, the preliminary versions of scholarly articles - are the lifeblood of academic economics. EconPapers and SSRN together provide fulltext for economics working papers. EconPapers is a much larger repository, offers more powerful searching, and seems particularly strong on European contributors.

SSRN

Health Specific Article Databases

Global Health
Global Health consists of more than 800,000 records from 1910 on, covering public health, tropical and communicable diseases, nutrition, more. Produced by CABI, so it shares many features with CAB Abstracts.
HINT! Global Health busy? Try MEDLINE
POPLINE
Bibliographic citations with subject indexing and abstracts for the scholarly literature in population studies, family planning, and related subjects.

WHO Regional Index Medici
Regional sections of WHO produce Index Medici in order to give access to health literature published in or related to those specific regions. The WHO African regional office's contribution is: African Index Medicus (AIM)

Agriculture and Technology Specific Article Databases

Agricultural & Environmental Science Database
This large, messy ProQuest database merges more than a dozen specialized databases, including Agricola, Environment Abstracts, Pollution Abstracts, and Water Resources Abstracts.
AGRIS / FAO
1975-present, with some linked fulltext. Covers agriculture, including forestry, animal husbandry, aquatic sciences and fisheries, human nutrition, and agricultural extension. Built through national and regional contributors, AGRIS is especially strong on grey literature.
HINT! Use the Agrovoc word/phrase search tool to discover the AGRIS subject term for your topic. Try out the "Search Categories" option.
AgEcon: Research in Agricultural & Applied Economics
A free, open access repository of full-text scholarly literature in agricultural and applied economics, including sub disciplines such as agribusiness, food supply, natural resource economics, environmental economics, policy issues, agricultural trade, and economic development.

AGRICOLA
1970-present. The U.S. National Agriculture Library's contribution to AGRIS. Covers agriculture, agronomy, animal science, breeding, dairy science, farm management, food and nutrition, and zoology.
HINT! If the OVID version is being used, try the Free AGRICOLA hosted by the USDA.

Compendex
1884-present. Compendex is the most comprehensive bibliographic database of engineering research.
TRID : the TRIS and ITRD database.
Produced by the Transportation Research Board, U.S. National Academies, TRID provides worldwide coverage of all things transportation.