Journal articles are the cutting edge of academic dialogue about their given subject. They are a useful and necessary resource for nearly all academic research papers.
Articles from academic journals today are indexed in databases. This means we can go to a database, search by keyword, and find related articles from a broad range of journals indexed within that database.
BU has subscriptions to over 500 databases, ranging from general academic databases (ex: JSTOR) to subject databases in everything from art to medicine to sociology.
Below, you'll see some recommended databases for this particular course, alongside some helpful search tips. You can also visit our STH Library Databases page for more ideas.
An index to journal articles, essays, and book reviews in the field of religion. Covers biblical studies, world religions, church history, and religious perspectives on social issues.
Typically known as "The Grove" after its most recent print version of 2001, its encyclopedic online content on people, works, terminology and sources, has been expanded to include both legacy and more recent publications of Grove Opera (1992), the Grove Jazz 2nd ed (2002), the AmeriGrove, and Grove Instruments. Notated music examples are embedded. Articles are selectively updated or added three times annually.
Locate citations and selected abstracts for articles and reviews of books, dissertations, recordings, and scores, that are featured in music periodicals. All music-related disciplines are covered. For 1948 through 1969 citations, use the Music Index in print annual volumes at the Music Library's Table 7.
Music & Performing Arts' collections include American Music, Classical, Contemporary World, Jazz, Popular, Smithsonian's Global Sound, Ethnographic Sound Archives, American Film Scripts, Asian American Drama, Black Drama, North American Drama, and Theatre in Context. Search results include links to the full text of the Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online (1997-2001), with additional audio examples.
Use the RILM database to identify both in-depth and interdisciplinary writing about music. Conference reports, journal articles, festschriften, book chapters, recordings, critical editions, and reviews, are indexed and described in detail. RILM’s access is comprehensive for the current half-century and, increasingly, is expanding back well into the 19th and early 20th centuries.
