General Databases cover a wide range of subject areas and are a good place to find a variety of trusted quality articles from academic/scholarly journals, newspapers, magazines, trade publications, reports, images and videos.
Academic Search Complete is multidisciplinary, good for nearly all subjects. Search using keywords to find articles in scholarly and trade journals, newspapers, conference proceedings, and more.
Web of Science covers scholarly literature in the sciences, health and medicine, social sciences, arts and humanities, and proceedings of international conferences, seminars, workshops, and conventions.
A specialized or subject specific database searches a more limited set of resources, such as a single subject area or type of resource (primary documents). Specialized databases are most useful when you need to find specific information for a single subject or a specific source type.
You can find more subject specific database suggestions on the subject guide pages. In most cases you will find your research area matches the subject guide. When you select the subject that matches your research area you will find a link to the guide. Look for the Databases or Articles tab to find suggested specialized databases.
Some research area do not match the subject areas, but there are still guides which will be useful in directing you to more specialized databases. See the suggestions below for best subject matches for those research areas.
Architecture: best subject guide is found under Art and titled Architecture: 19th and 20th Century
Art History: guides are found under Art and are broken down by types and time periods, select the one that best matches your topic area.
Ecology: the Environmental Studies guides will cover Ecology.
Film Studies and Media Studies: these areas are combined in the Cinema and Media Studies guide.
Gender Studies : the Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies guide will cover this research area.
History: you will find one guide for World and one guide for American history.
International Relations: this area is covered in the Politics - World guide.
Literature: this area is under English.
Music / Music Theory: under Music the most useful guide will be Background & Getting Started with Music Research.
Political Science: you will find one guide for world and one guide for American politics.
Sometimes you may need to search for a specific material type, such as newspaper articles or primary documents. In those cases the guides by Source Type will be helpful in showing you which specialized databases contain those materials types.