LibGuides: Journalism: Databases

Recommended databases

Nexis This link opens in a new window
Nexis Advance UK provides access to full text access to regional, national and international newspapers, business trade journals, company reports and country reports. (The New platform for Nexis UK was launched on 5 September 2019. This database was previously called LexisNexis Business and News). Lexis Advance also provides full text access to international cases, legislation and journals and some news from Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand and United States of America.
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Taylor & Francis Journals This link opens in a new window
Access to the full text articles of over 2,000 journals published by Taylor & Francis. Please note: a large selection of ebook titles are accessible on other platforms - please use Library Search to search for them (if you do not find the title you require use the Inter Library Loans service or contact your Subject Liaison Librarian for advice).
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SAGE Journals This link opens in a new window
Access to over 220 e-journals published in collections by Sage, with up to 59 years of backfiles where available. Access to more than 700 other journals from 1999 onwards for the titles not included in the collections. A multidisciplinary database, with particular emphasis on the social sciences.
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Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Contains full text articles from over 5,800 journals, covering many subjects, including anthropology, politics, political science, psychology, psychiatry, sociology and social work. Coverage includes 450 magazines for news, current awareness and examples of professional practice.
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British Periodicals This link opens in a new window
British Periodicals traces the changing attitudes and assumptions of British writers over a period of 250 years. It consists of 460 historical periodical runs published from the 1680s to the 1930s. Topics covered include news and reviews on literature, philosophy, history, science, the social sciences, music, art, drama, archaeology and architecture. Hosted on the ProQuest integrated platform, other databases .
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Cambridge Core This link opens in a new window
Cambridge Core provides full text access for over two hundred journals published by Cambridge University Press in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Also available: access to Cambridge Journals Digital Archive (bought by JISC Collections) comprising 171 journals.
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Ebook Central This link opens in a new window
ProQuest Ebook Central provides access to over 18,000 authoritative ebooks covering a wide range of subjects. They can be read online and, where permitted, a section of the ebook may be downloaded. Many of them are titles that have been included on reading lists. You can search using keywords, titles or authors.
Ebook Central is designed for patrons with accessibility needs. For more information see: https://proquest.libguides.com/ebookcentral/home and https://proquest.libguides.com/ebookcentral/home.
e-Duke Books This link opens in a new window
Access to more than 2,000 scholarly frontlist e-books published by Duke University Press in the humanities and social sciences. Not all ebook content is available, but it is possible to filter by 'Available' titles to find the full-text of books and chapters.
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JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Archive collections of full text electronic journals from 1880 onwards, always from volume 1, issue 1, and including previous and related titles. The most recently published issues (past 3-5 years) are not available in these collections (unless we hold a current subscription too). The Library subscribes only to the Arts & Sciences I to IX, inclusive, and the Health & General Sciences collections, as well as 19th Century British Pamphlets, a collection, created by RLUK (Research Libraries UK) and the Ireland collection (research materials relating to Ireland, spanning the 18th century to present, provided under the JISC Digitisation Programme). If you have any problem connecting to JSTOR off campus, please use the alternative link below.

Ithaka also continue to provide access to a number of freely available and open access resources which you may now search on Artstor and JSTOR. Even more content is available when you register to read – millions of articles from nearly 2,000 journals.
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Oxford Academic Journals This link opens in a new window
The Oxford Academic journals collection includes some of the world's most highly cited and prestigious Oxford University Press journals, in a broad range of subject disciplines.
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Periodicals Archive Online This link opens in a new window
Online access to over 288,000 articles from a subset of 80 full text journal backfiles published between 1891 and 2000. This collection was Purchased by JISC Collections and is available free of charge to UK Higher Education institutions.
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Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Project MUSE Humanities Collection provides full-text online access to 164 humanities, arts, and social science journals from 60 scholarly publishers as well as links to Project MUSE content from databases such as America: History and life, Historical abstracts and JSTOR.
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Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Burney Newspapers Collection This link opens in a new window
The newspapers and news pamphlets gathered by the Reverend Charles Burney (1757 - 1817) represent the largest single collection of 17th and 18th century English news media. The 700 or so bound volumes of newspapers and news pamphlets were published mostly in London, however there are also some English provincial, Irish and Scottish papers, and a few examples from the American colonies, Europe and India.
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FT.com: Financial Times This link opens in a new window
The Financial Times is one of the world’s leading business news and information organisations. FT.com is an essential source of news and comment, both text and video, data analysis and research tools. It supports a range of disciplines from accounting and international relations to economics and management. The ePaper archive goes back to 19 June 2008.
To use the FT, you must create your personal account using your Brunel University email address. Once registered, you will be able to read the newspaper anywhere including on your mobile iOS and Android device by installing the FT Digital Edition app.
Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new window
Gale Primary Resources (formerly Gale NewsVault) permits cross-searching of all the British Library's collections of historical newspapers and some journals published between 1732 to 1950.
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British Library Newspapers 1800-1900 This link opens in a new window
British Library Newspapers Parts 1 and 2 1800-1900 is the most significant digital collection of British historic newspapers. provides access to approximately 70 national, regional and local 19th century British newspapers. New conservation and imaging techniques and a new cross-searchable platform adopted by the British Library offers unparalleled access and discoverability to this valuable historical and cultural archive. The content totals over three million pages and reflects the social and political developments of the time. Find influential national and regional newspapers representing different political and cultural segments of British society. Gale permits cross-searching of the majority of the British Library's collections of historical newspapers published between 1800 to 1900.
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Regional Business News This link opens in a new window
Provides full text coverage to regional business news press, predominately covering the United States (Washington Post, etc.), but also including some sources from the rest of the world such as the Daily Mail, Evening Standard, Le Monde, and Mail on Sunday.
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Scopus This link opens in a new window
Scopus is the largest ever bibliographic database and indexes over 20,000 titles from science, technology, medicine and the social sciences. This abstract only database is updated daily so it is excellent for identifying the emerging research. Use Article Linker (AL - link to full text) to check for full text online sources.
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Web of Science This link opens in a new window
A database with over 92 million records of journal articles, conference papers, and book chapters dating fro 1900 to present. It includes several indexing databases in one covering: Social sciences, Arts & Humanities, and Physical Sciences. An extremely good database to use if you aren't sure where to start.
This abstract only database is updated daily. Use Article Linker (AL) to access full-text of articles etc. (where subscriptions or Open Access allow).
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OED: Oxford English Dictionary This link opens in a new window
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is an etymological dictionary which is widely acknowledged as the most comprehensive record of the English language, tracing the evolution and use of more than 600,000 words through 3 million quotations. OED Online gives access to latest text of the full Oxford English Dictionary, the Historical Thesaurus of the OED and enable users new ways to explore the English language: Search for new words by year, decade, or any date range. Set language in context: search by place, language type, and date to discover the impact of world events. OED Online is revised and updated at regular intervals and covers British, American, and other varieties of English, and all types of use, from formal to slang.

OUP offers another English dictionary on its Oxford Living Dictionaries platform but please note it has fewer definitions.
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Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new window
Full text of over 200 dictionaries and reference works published by Oxford University Press, spanning 25 different subject areas, bringing together 2 million digitized entries across Oxford University Press’s Dictionaries, Companions and Encyclopedias. Please note that the text of the full and definitive Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is not available via Oxford Reference Online. See its separate entry to access the latest edition of OED.
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Database search tips

Split your topic into keywords: To find better and fewer results, think about your keywords. Make sure they accurately describe what you are looking for, and add more keywords to make your search more specific.

Think of alternative keywords: For example, 'young' could also be referred to as 'youth' or 'adolescent'. Or, think of the bigger picture. For example, instead of searching for 'boys' or 'girls', try searching for 'gender'.

Search for phrases in "double quotation marks": For example, "fourth estate". This will search for the phrase as a whole, instead of the individual words.

Select a data range: For example, you may only want literature published since 2010. Most databases have the option to select dates.

For more help see our Finding resources guide, or contact your Librarian.

Finding resources guide