Databases
What is a Database?
Research databases are organized collections of information or data, such as journal articles, reports, books, videos, or images, that can be searched to retrieve information. They often contain documents, citations, or article abstracts (summaries).
Databases Links to an external site. can be interdisciplinary (spanning several disciplines) or subject-specific (focusing on a particular discipline, such as business, journalism, or computer science). For example, the interdisciplinary database Academic Search Complete Links to an external site. covers social sciences, humanities, education, computer science and engineering, medicine, and more, whereas a database, such as Education Database by ProQuest, Links to an external site. focuses solely on education-related research materials.
The Miramar College Library subscribes to hundreds of research databases, all accessible through the library website Links to an external site. and the AZ Databases Links to an external site. list. Because these research databases are often expensive and paid for through student fees and tuition, an active student ID is required to access them. You may not be able to access this information on Google.
Check out this Links to an external site. 2-minute video for a quick overview on library databases and how they're organized to help you find what you need for your assignment or class.
Understanding Articles, Journals, and Databases
The most common type of sources that databases contain are journals. A journal is a publication that comes out in issues on a regular basis, like a magazine.
Journals are collections of articles. These articles are shorter than books and written about very specific topics. Unlike magazine articles, journal articles are typically written by experts for other experts in the same field.
The image below is the front cover of the Journal of World History. Note that this includes the volume, number (also known as “issue number”), month, and year. Because journals are published regularly, this information identifies different issues of the same journal.
If we cite an article from this journal in MLA, the volume, number, and date will be included to help identify what issue of the journal the article is located in. For example:
Lewis, Su Lin, and Carolien Stolte. "Other Bandungs: Afro-Asian Internationalisms in the Early Cold War." Journal of World History, vol. 30, no. 1, 2019, pp. 1-19. Project MUSE, https://doi.org/10.1353/jwh.2019.0011 Links to an external site.