Electronic databases and printed indexes for French studies research
On this page I've listed the best databases to use for French studies research.
The prime purpose of a database (often called a bibliographic databases) is to find journal articles on a topic. A database is a computerised index to journal articles, chapters in books and other sources of information such as conference papers. The Library Catalogue will only tell you the titles of journals held by, or that we can access from, the University of Adelaide Library. A database will index each individual article from an extensive range of journals, not all of which will necessarily be in the University of Adelaide Library collections here.
Note that databases cover journals world wide. No library will contain or have access to all the articles indexed. That means that you will need to check the results of your search to see if the articles you have identified as relevant are available in the University of Adelaide Library.
Not sure how to use a database to find information on your topic? I've provided simple, step-by-step instructions on my Literature search techniques pages.
And if you need some gentle persuasion to start using databases to find relevant information, listen to our podcast make databases your friend.
Visit the Library podcasts page for full details of how to listen.
Don't forget, though, that there are also printed bibliographic resources in the Barr Smith Library's Reference collection that you should use.
Electronic indexes to literature
MLA - Easily the best electronic database for our purposes, the MLA (Modern Language Association) International Bibliography is a subject index to journal articles and books on modern languages, literatures, folklore, and linguistics. It covers from 1925 onwards and contains over 1.7 million citations from more than 4,400 journals. The majority of records are from English-language publications, but at least sixty other languages are represented including French.
The database also has an identifiable subset of more than 77,000 records from JSTOR's Language and Literature Collection. The documents date back as far as 1881 and contain direct links to the full-text articles in JSTOR (see below).
MLA also indexes journals in areas related to literature such as Cultural studies, Film studies and Media.
Academic search premier - Indexes and provides abstracts of articles from over 8,000 journals. Of these, full text is provided for over 4,600 journals, and more than 3,600 are peer-reviewed.
Coverage: social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, physics, chemistry, language and linguistics, arts & literature, medical sciences, ethnic studies. I've found it quite good for French research.
Academic search premier is one of the Ebscohost research databases to which the Library subscribes.
Academic OneFile - A collection of peer-reviewed, full-text articles in HTML and PDF format from more than 8,000 journals with extensive coverage of the physical sciences, technology, medicine, social sciences, the arts, theology, and literature. There's a reeasonable coverage of French literary journals such as: French forum, French review, French studies, Nineteenth-Century French Studies, Romanic review, and so on. The publisher maintains a complete listing of journals covered by Academic OneFile, with details of dates of coverage.
JSTOR - Not strictly a database but a searchable collection from volume 1 onwards of over 270 core journal titles in many disciplines. I've had very good results using it to track down citations for specific articles when not all the details were known. Coverage extends to all volumes except for the last few years, so don't use it to find articles on very recent topics.
JSTOR citations can be exported in EndNote-compatible format [don't know about EndNote bibliographical software? - visit the EndNote page].
Note to my academic colleagues: JSTOR provides a stable URL for every article, which you can copy and paste into MyUni.
Periodicals index online (PIO) - Formerly called Periodicals Contents Index (PCI) this huge database indexes millions of articles published in the arts, humanities and social sciences over the past 300 years.
From the PIO results screen there is a link to Periodicals Archive Online which provides access to hundreds of online journals.
Web of Science - The Web of Science database includes the Arts & Humanities citation index and the Social sciences citation index from 1980 to date. Search by author, keyword or citation.
Web of science is useful for finding articles that have cited a given article, and so are likely to be on a related topic.
Scopus - A large database with an emphasis on science but which also indexes over 2800 social sciences and humanities journal titles. Covers 1980 onwards for topic searching: from 1996 onwards allows cited reference searching to find articles that have cited a given article.
Libraries Australia (Kinetica) - Use this database to find which Australian libraries hold a particular book or journal.
Note: Use Advanced search and change all of these to exact match or starts with. Apply the Journals limit when searching for journals.
If you don't find a journal in Libraries Australia, search SIAL: Serials in Australian Libraries which includes a few extra older journal holdings.
Printed indexes to literature
If you want to do serious research into a French literature topic you'll need to use a specialised index. So far, these exist only in printed format, but they are excellent resources because they are devoted just to French literature, whereas databases such as MLA cover a wide range of literatures, of which French is a relatively small part.
The most important index is:
French XX
Other useful printed databases are:
Bibliographie de la littérature française du Moyen Age à nos jours Bibliographie der franzosischen Literaturwissenschaft French 17: An annual descriptive bibliography of French seventeenth century studies
You'll find French XX in the Barr Smith Library Reference collection on Level 3 South. My desk is in the Research Librarians' area immediately adjacent to the Reference collection; if you need help in using an index come in and ask me - I'll be happy to help!
I've provided simple, step-by-step instructions on how to use a printed index on my Literature search techniques pages, using the excellent French XX index as an example.
Newspaper searches
Newspapers can be a very useful source of information for French Studies research. I have a separate page French electronic newspapers and news services which has a link to the major newspaper indexing database, Factiva, as well as links to individual newspapers.
Alerts and Saved searches
Many databases allow you to save your searches on their servers and will alert you when new articles on your topic are added to their files. Databases that index citations, such as Scopus and World of Science, will also let you create document citation alerts. This means that you will be notified when a selected article is cited by another article.
A database Alert will usually be sent to you by email, or you may be able to sign up for an RSS feed. [Not sure about RSS? Here's a straightforward explanation].
To set up an Alert you typically have to register with the database by filling in an online form with your contact details. You will usually also be asked to assign yourself a username and a password.
For example, if you want to set up Search history/Alerts on the database Academic Search Premier you click on the tab at the top of the page labelled Sign In to My EBSCOhost. When the Sign in page appears, click on the tab labelled I'm a new user, fill in the Registration Form, then click the Submit button. Shortly after you will receive an email confirming that you have an account registered with My EBSCOhost.
Once you have registered you can set your Preferences for future searching - just click on the word Preferences under the Academic Search Premier Search box. Here you can choose from different format options for your search results. You can do things like select your preferred citation format (MLA is one of the options) and have the database save items in a file formatted for EndNote (and other popular bibliographic formats). You can direct that the formatted file be emailed to you if you wish.
To set up Alerts on the major Literature database, MLA, you need to register for what they call My Research by filling in a Personal Profile.
You'll find that the process of setting up an Alert is pretty similar on most databases. It's well worth doing if you need to be sure to have the latest information that is published in your area of interest.
Thesis checking
If you are embarking on a thesis you should consult these indexes to theses/dissertations as early as possible; not only is it interesting to see what work has been done on your thesis topic, it is crucial, if you are doing a higher degree, to ensure that your actual thesis topic is original.
ProQuest Dissertations and Theses [formerly Dissertation abstracts] - An index to doctoral dissertations (theses) submitted to accredited North American universities and colleges, and some international universities, from 1637 onwards.
Citations from 1980 include a 350-word abstract. From 1997, in addition to the abstract, you can read a preview comprising the first 24 pages of the thesis. Masters theses published since 1988 include 150-word abstracts. You can also download the complete text of each thesis in .pdf format, but you will need to pay for that (in February 2008 the cost was US$35.00).
Index to theses - Theses accepted for higher degrees by the universities of Great Britain and Ireland.
Système Universitaire de Documentation - Pour consulter les thèses recherchez dans le catalogue du Système Universitaire de Documentation. Lisez d'abord Chercher les références d'un travail universitaire dans le catalogue Sudoc; puis cliquez sur Sudoc - Catalogue.
Australasian Digital Theses Program - The University of Adelaide is a member of the ADT program which is building a distributed database of theses in digitised format from Australian universities. Search or browse the database, and find out how to deposit a thesis in the database.
How to access the databases
You'll find information on access on the page for each individual database in the lists above.
Databases for which the Library has purchased a network licence may be accessed remotely, if you are a current member of the University of Adelaide community, from your home or office computer. The remote user login page has information about using your Username and Password to get remote access to databases and other electronic resources.
 | Please note:-- The terms of our licence agreements with suppliers strictly limit remote access to electronic databases to enrolled students and staff members of the University of Adelaide. |
Multimedia titles
As well as databases, we also have a growing collection of multimedia CDs and DVDs. These are kept in the Barr Smith Library's Reserve and Multimedia collection on Level 3 South. The Call number field on the Catalogue entry will tell you the appropriate terminal number.
If you would like to have a look at one of these titles, please ask a Library staff member at the Reserve and Multimedia desk to set it up for you.
Le Grand Robert de la langue française électronique. The contents are equivalent to those of the six-volume paper edition. Entries include quotations, synonyms and cross-references. It is available to University of Adelaide staff and students from computer 332 in Non-networked databases area, part of the Reserve and Multimededia section of the Barr Smith Library.
French posters from World War I A database of 284 posters created by French artists to support the war effort during World War I. Organized by subject with detailed descriptions of each image. Includes thumbnail, zoom, bookmark, and print features.
Available at the Multimedia collection, Barr Smith Library.
Politique et société: La France des années Mittérand, 1981-1995 Includes sources and references on politics and society in France, January 1981 to May 1995. Contains a chronology of events; general press information; administrative publications; speeches, interviews and programs; presidential declarations; recommendations of ministers; and official communications.
Available to University of Adelaide staff and students from computer 334 in Non-networked databases area, part of the Reserve and Multimededia section of the Barr Smith Library.
If you need help with a
French database or index,
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 Cette page a été créée, et est maintenue par Alan Keig.
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