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Philosophy

This research guide identifies materials for basic and advanced research in philosophy. It lists a variety of sources, including databases, reference works, and Internet sites useful for the study of philosophy.

Basic Philosophy Databases

Use the following sources to find periodical articles about a particular philosophical concept, movement, or philosopher. In some instances, books, essays in books, and current book reviews also may be found in these sources.

 

Full text of core research journals (including almost 1,500 titles in philosophy) from the year of their inception, many dating back to the late 1800s and early 1900s. JSTOR  typically does NOT cover the last three to five years of journals.

 

The most important abstracting and indexing source for all aspects of philosophy. Indexes journals and books in English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian. Includes book reviews.

 

"...a comprehensive index and bibliography of philosophy maintained by the community of philosophers" (site description). PhilPapers is an interactive academic database of journal articles in philosophy maintained by the Centre for Digital Philosophy at the University of Western Ontario.

Other Relevant Databases and Indexes

Academic Search Premier
Database that abstracts and indexes over 3,200 scholarly journals, and offers full text (often dating back to 1990) for over 1,000 journals. A number of philosophy journals are covered, such as Bioethics, Noûs, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, and Philosophy Today.
 
APA PsycINFO (1887+)
Useful for locating articles, conference proceedings, book chapters, and dissertations dealing with the cognitive sciences and philosophy of mind.
 
Indexes articles, books, and book reviews from more than 1,100 art and humanities journals. This database's primary use is to track citations to the works of a specific author through the "Cited Reference Search" feature.
 
Contains over 1.75 million bibliographic records on topics such as biblical studies, world religions, church history, and religion in social and philosophical issues.
 
Bibliography of Bioethics (1975-2009)
Main Library General Collection R 724 .W34
Annual index containing approximately 6,000 new citations to documents in the bioethics area. Ceased publication in 2009. During the 34 years it was published, provided the most comprehensive access to literature about the ethical, legal, and public policy aspects of health care and biomedical research. An online version of the Bibliography is available via ETHXWeb at Georgetown University. Many bioethics articles published since 2009 can be located in MEDLINE (Subject Subset delimiter: "Bioethics") or PubMed.
 
ERIC (1966+)
This is the primary database in the field of education and should be consulted for philosophy of education topics. It indexes scholarly journals as well as ERIC documents.
 
Essay and General Literature Index (1900+)
Index to collections of essays in books, with emphasis on the humanities.
Provides multidisciplinary and multilingual coverage of humanities and social sciences, including philosophy. This database is a continuation of the older print index Bulletin signalétique.
 
Humanities Source (1907+)
An electronic database of citations to articles appearing in more than 400 English-language periodicals dealing with the humanities: folklore, history, language, literature, music, philosophy, religion, and classical studies.
 
Iter: Gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance
An online database listing journal articles, books, and book reviews on all aspects of medieval and Renaissance studies.
 
Project MUSE
Provides online access to articles in over 200 journals in the arts and humanities, sciences, and mathematics, including a number in philosophy. Usually, this database does not include the full run of a journal title.
   
Sociological Abstracts (1952+)
Major source for abstracts of sociological literature. Useful for coverage of topics related to philosophy.