Primary African Studies Databases & Article Indexes

Academic Search Premier (EBSCO)
Broad collection of fulltext scholarly journals and related periodicals in all scholarly disciplines. Includes bibliographic citations, indexing and abstracting for more than 8,000 periodicals. A comp...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Holdings: Coverage varies: mostly 1990s to present.

African Studies Centre, Leiden, Catalogue
Also Known as: African Studies Abstracts
Journal article and book chapter abstracts and bibliographic records for books, periodicals, government publications, brochures and pamphlets, and microforms on Africa. ...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Holdings: Dates vary
Unrestricted Access
Supplemental URLs
    Thesauri: African languages, African peoples, African polities

Bibliography of Africana Periodical Literature Database
Also Known as: Bullwinkle
Bibliographic citations, with subject, country and region, and author indexing, for the periodical literature on Africa....   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Holdings: Coverage varies.
Unrestricted Access

eHRAF World Cultures
Also Known as: eHRAF Collection of Ethnography
The Collection of Ethnography, established 1949, currently contains nearly one million pages of information on over 360 cultures of the world, past and present. Each culture case contains a variet...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Holdings: Updated in annual installments.
Supplemental URLs
    eHRAF User Guides
    Outline of Cultural Materials (OCM): Topics and Subjects
    Culture List for All Formats (Outline of World Cultures - OWC)
    Guide to Cross-Cultural Research
    Overview and User Tips

ELAND
Also Known as: EL@ND, EADI, CIDOB, CMI, DCISM, INWENT, ECDPM, REGARDS, UCD, IDS, IUED, OEFSE
Indexes economic, social, and technological development resources worldwide through cross-database searching in nine databases produced by European development and economic assistance research cen...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Unrestricted Access

IBISCUS
Bibliographic citations with indexing and abstracts for the scholarly and professional literature in economic development worldwide, especially Africa. Topics covered include economics, rural developm...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Holdings: 1972 to present.
Unrestricted Access

Index to South African Periodicals
Also Known as: ISAP Online
Bibliographic citations with indexing for selected articles published in South African periodicals....   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Holdings: 1942-present.

International Documentation Network on the Great African Lakes Region
Also Known as: Reseau Documentaire International sur la Region des Grands Lacs Africains
Grey literature on social, political, and economic current history of the African Great Lakes Region (Burundi, Rwanda and the surrounding countries -- Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Democratic Republique...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Holdings: 1990 to present.
Unrestricted Access

International Index to Black Periodicals Full Text
Also Known as: IIBP
- from publisher website
IIBP Full Text includes current and retrospective bibliographic citations and abstracts from over 150 scholarly and popular journals, newspapers and newsletters from the United States, Africa and the...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Holdings: Time period varies depending on journal title

Kwetu.net
Also Known as: African Resource Service
Searchable fulltext (PDF-format) documents from African research organizations, NGOs, educational institutions, and government agencies. Topics covered include agriculture, AIDS support services, arid...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]

Quarterly Index of African Periodical Literature
Also Known as: QIALP
Indexing for Eastern and Southern Africa-published periodicals, emphasizing current affairs and social and political issues....   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Holdings: mid 1980s-present.
Unrestricted Access

Important African Studies Databases & Article Indexes

Abstracts in Anthropology
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AccessUNDP: United Nations Development Programme Project Reports
Bibliographic descriptions of UNDP-funded project reports for projects conducted globally, interregionally, or regionally, especially in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America, the Arab states, a...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]

African Activist Archive
Digital collection on U.S. supporters of African struggles against colonialism, apartheid, and social injustice from the 1950s through the 1990s....   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Unrestricted Access

African Index Medicus
Also Known as: AIM WHO AHILA
Bibliographic citations to medical and public health literature from Africa. Produced by Association for Health Information and Libraries in Africa (AHILA) with the technical support of the World Heal...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Holdings: 1961 to present (currently, 1996)
Unrestricted Access

African Studies Companion (4th ed.)
Also Known as: Hans Zell
Online companion to print edition. Contains updated entries including URL changes. ...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]

African Women's Bibliographic Database
Bibliographic citations, with subject, country and region, and author indexing, for English-language literature on African women....   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Holdings: 1986-present.
Unrestricted Access

African Writers Series
Key texts of modern African literature with an emphasis on the history of post-colonial writing. Release Seven of this online edition includes over 230 volumes of fiction, poetry, drama and non-fictio...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]

AGRIS
Also Known as: International Information System for the Agricultural Sciences and Technology
The Food and Agriculture Organization's bibliographic database for worldwide research publications in agriculture in all its aspects, including geography, history, education, legislation, and agricult...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Holdings: 1975-present.
Unrestricted Access

Aluka
Also Known as: Aluka: Struggles for Freedom in Southern Africa Collection, Struggles for Freedom in Southern Africa
Online digital library of scholarly resources from and about Africa, built collaboratively. Struggles for Freedom in Southern Africa is available at Penn. Other collections not available at Penn: Afri...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]

Annotated bibliography of selected research on civil society and health
Describes literature on civil society / state interactions in national health systems, civil society contributions to pro-poor, health equity policies, and civil society influence on global health pol...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Unrestricted Access

Anthropological Index Online
Also Known as: Anthropology Plus, Anthro Plus
Covers cultural and social anthropology, archaeology, biological and physical anthropology, and linguistics. Languages include English, Spanish, French, German, Polish, Russian, Italian, and others....   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Holdings: 1970 to the present. Limited data for the late 1960s.
Supplemental URLs
    Notice - Temporary service. Click here

Anthropological Literature
Also Known as: Anthro Plus, Anthropolgy Plus
Social, cultural, physical, biological, and linguistic anthropology, ethnology, archaeology, folklore, material culture, and interdisciplinary studies. Articles in related fields including art, demogr...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Holdings: Late 19th century to the present. Updated quarterly.

CAB Abstracts (complete)
Formerly produced by Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux, this database comprises international coverage of veterinary medicine, agriculture, forestry and related bio-science fields, including: human he...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Holdings: 1910-present.

Current bibliography (Society for Ethnomusicology)
Features a bibliography, videography, filmography, and discography of materials of interest to ethnomusicologists....   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Unrestricted Access

Database of African Theses and Dissertations
Also Known as: DATAD
Bibliographic information with abstracts on dissertations and theses produced by African universities. Also describes dissertations and theses produced by other institutions and held by the participan...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Supplemental URLs
    Participating institutions contact list

Digital Innovation South Africa (DISA)
Free online digital archive of South African apartheid-era works. Includes periodicals, trial materials, and other documents....   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Unrestricted Access

Digital National Security Archive
The database includes more than 63,000 of the most important declassified documents regarding critical U.S. policy decisions. There are over 29 complete collections, each offering specialized insights...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]

EIU CityData
Also Known as: EIU City Data
EIU CityData contains price data on over 160 products and services in 140 cities worldwide from 1990 to the present day....   [more]    [Add to PennTags]

Empire online
Manuscript and printed materials pertaining to the history of colonialism, 1492-1962. Primarily British. ...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
    record

Encyclopaedia of Islam, 3rd Ed
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EQUINET Bibliography on Equity in Health in Southern Africa
Annotated bibliography published and grey literature, with hyperlinks to fulltext where available. Topics covered include: values, policies and rights; health equity in economic and trade policies; po...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Unrestricted Access

FBIS: Foreign Broadcast Information Service Electronic Index (1975-1996)
Contemporary coverage of political, economic, scientific, and cultural issues and events worldwide, relying upon international and local language news sources. The FBIS Electronic Index provides acces...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]

Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports 1974 - 1996
Also Known as: FBIS
Coverage of Africa, Asia, China, Latin America, and the Middle/Near East....   [more]    [Add to PennTags]

Francis
Also Known as: Bulletin signaletique
- from CSA Databases
Francis covers a wide range of multilingual, multidisciplinary information in the humanities and social sciences. It is strong in religion, the history of art, and literature with emphasis on cur...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Holdings: 1984 to the present. Updated monthly.
Supplemental URLs
    New interface effective Sept 1, 2007
    Eureka interface through mid-September 2007

Global Development Finance
Also Known as: World Bank GDF Online
World Bank time series statistical data covering 1970 to the present, with forecast data for up to seven years, for the 138 countries reporting public and publicly-guaranteed debt. Data include extern...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Supplemental URLs
    old interface url

Global Health
Also Known as: Global Health Archive
Global Health consists of more than 800,000 records from 1910 on - equivalent to 300 volumes of research covering public health, tropical and communicable diseases, nutrition, helminthology, entomolo...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Holdings: 1910-

Historical Abstracts
Historical coverage of the world from 1450 to the present (excluding the United States and Canada)....   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Holdings: ca. 1974- present. Updated three times a year.
Supplemental URLs
    ABC-CLIO access
    EbscoHost access

Index Islamicus
- from CSA Databases
Bibliographic citations with subject indexing on Islam, the Middle East, and the Muslim world in general, including Muslims in Africa and Asia and major Muslim minorities worldwide. Topics covered inc...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Holdings: 1906-present.

Index Medicus for the Eastern Mediterranean Region
Also Known as: WHO IMEMR
Bibliographic citations with indexing for health literature published in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, including Afghanistan, Bahrain, Cyprus, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon,...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Unrestricted Access

IndexCat
Also Known as: Index-Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon-General's Office, 1880-1961
Bibliographic citations with subject indexing to the holdings of largest medical library in the late nineteenth century. Now useful for research in the history of medicine, history of science, and als...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Unrestricted Access

International Bibliography of the Social Sciences
Also Known as: IBSS CSA
- from CSA Databases
Bibliographic citations and subject indexing for the international journal article and book literature in anthropology, economics, political science, and sociology. Produced by British Library of Poli...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Holdings: Covers 1951 to the present in three separate files.
Supplemental URLs
    IBSS Journal Coverage List (LSE IBSS Web)

ISI Citation Indexes (Web of Science)
Also Known as: Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Science Citation Index, Social Sciences Citation Index, Web of Science, SSCI, SCI, AHCI,ISI
Indexes journals in the sciences, social sciences, and arts and humanities. Allows for cited reference searching. Includes Science Citation Index, the Social Science Citation Index[more]    [Add to PennTags]
Holdings: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED)--1945-present, Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI)--1956-present, Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI)--1975-present. Updated weekly.
Supplemental URLs
    ISI Citation Indexes Tutorial
    Cited Reference Searching Tutorial

Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa
A "web dossier on Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa to coincide with the conference on Islam, Disengagement of the State, and Globalization in Sub-Saharan Africa held at UNESCO in Paris on 12-13 May 2005....   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Unrestricted Access

JSTOR
JSTOR specializes in making available the back issues of journals in a wide variety of humanities and social science disciplines. Issues are available both as images and as text, making searching poss...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Holdings: active
Embargo: 195 month embargo on full-text
Supplemental URLs
    JSTOR Title List (by title)
    JSTOR Advanced Search
    JSTOR Printing Help
    JSTOR Title List (by discipline)

Media/Materials Clearinghouse
A fulltext collection of international health communication materials: pamphlets, posters, audiotapes, videos, training materials, job aids, electronic media and other media/materials designed to prom...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Unrestricted Access

MLA International Bibliography (EBSCO)
Also Known as: Modern Language Association Bibliography, MLAIB
Covers literature, languages, folklore, and linguistics. Includes English and foreign languages. ...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Holdings: Covers 1963 to the present. New records are added ten times a year.

NAMLIT
Bibliographic database of materials on Namibia....   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Unrestricted Access

POPLINE
Bibliographic citations with subject indexing and abstracts for the scholarly literature in population studies, family planning, and related subjects. Topics include family planning programs and techn...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Holdings: 1970-present.
Unrestricted Access
Supplemental URLs
    Users Guide to POPLINE Keywords

Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa : A Critical Bibliography (2nd ed)
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Refworld
Fulltext documents collection from UN High Commissioner for Refugees....   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Unrestricted Access

REGARDS
Le Centre de Documentation REGARDS...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Unrestricted Access

SARDC Virtual Library
Also Known as: Southern African Research and Documentation Centre
Bibliographic databases, fulltext collections, and directories on southern African environment, gender, governance, sustainable democracy, media, disaster management, and regional economic development...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Unrestricted Access

Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive. Part I
Documents on the arguments for and against slavery during the 17th-19th centuries, the worldwide Abolitionist movement and its internal debates, perspectives on colonization, slavery and the US Consti...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]

Swahili Manuscripts Database
Catalog of manuscripts held by the School of Oriental and African Studies (London) library. Microfilm of the MSS are on order for Van Pelt Library. Some image and sound recording materials are availab...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Unrestricted Access

UNESBIB
Also Known as: UNESCO Bibliographic Database
Indexing with abstracts for the international publication and document literature on education, culture, communication and information, the natural sciences, and the social sciences and humanities. To...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Unrestricted Access

UNESDOC
Also Known as: UNESCO Documents Collection
Fulltext or page image for UNESCO documents. Materials cover the subject areas of interest to UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization): education, communication and in...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Unrestricted Access

West African Arabic Manuscript Database
Database featuring descriptive records of 20,000 Arabic manuscripts from West Africa, including Timbuctu, Nouakchott, Segou, Niamey, Kano and Boutilimit collections. The database and search interface ...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Unrestricted Access

World Bank Africa Household Survey Databank
Bibliographic descriptions, with many fulltext documents, of survey data and documentation on socioeconomic household surveys conducted in Africa....   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Unrestricted Access

World Bank Documents & Reports
Also Known as: World Development Sources, WDS
Page-image fulltext of more than 14,000 World Bank documents. Covers World Bank activities and interests worldwide in agriculture, economic policy, education and social protection, electrical power, o...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Holdings: 1960-present. Updated weekly.
Unrestricted Access

World Development Indicators
Also Known as: World Bank WDI Online
The World Bank's principal data source on the global economy. More than 550 time series, 1960-present, on more than 200 countries and 18 country groups, covering demographic, social, economic, financi...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Supplemental URLs
    old interface url

Related African Studies Databases & Article Indexes

Bibliography of Asian Studies
- from publisher website
All subjects (especially humanities and social sciences) pertaining to East, Southeast, South Asia, and Indian Ocean countries....   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Holdings: 1971 to the present.

CAB Abstracts
Formerly produced by Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux, this database comprises international coverage of veterinary medicine, agriculture, forestry and related bio-science fields, including: human he...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Holdings: 1973 to the present. Updated monthly.
Supplemental URLs
    CABICODE Alphabetical List (CABI web)
    CAB Thesaurus (beta version - CABI web)
    CAB Abstracts Serials Scanned (CABI web)

Declassified Documents Reference System
Also Known as: DDRS Online
Primary sources, fulltext and image for declassified United States government documents from the second half of the twentieth century to the present. The collection provides coverage for domestic an...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Holdings: Declassified documents issued from 1941 through the 1990s. Documents have been declassified since 1974.

EIU Country Commerce (ILT)
- from EIU - Economist Intelligence Unit
A practical guide to regulations, operating conditions, and corporate practices in more than 50 countries; updated annually. Tax regulations, Employment Practices, Business, Import, Export, Internati...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Holdings: 1996 - Present

FAO Corporate Document Repository
Also Known as: Food and Agriculture Organization Document Repository
Fulltext electronic library of FAO publications and meeting documents and related publications from non-FAO sources. Topics covered include agriculture, economics and nutrition, fisheries, forestry, s...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Holdings: Dates vary. Mostly 1986-present.
Unrestricted Access

Folk Literature of the Sephardic Jews
A multimedia archive of ballads and other oral literature in Judeo-Spanish collected from 1957 to 1993 by Samuel G. Armistead (University of California, Davis), the late Joseph H. Silverman (Universit...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Unrestricted Access

Global Books in Print
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Holdings: Updated weekly.

Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals
International law, comparative law, and municipal law of countries outside the US, UK, and Commonwealth....   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Holdings: 1985 to the present. Updated quarterly.

ISI Journal Citation Reports (JCR)
Also Known as: JCR
Journal Citation Reports provides journal comparison by accumulating and tabulating citation and article counts. It includes the JCR Science edition,and the JCR Social Sciences edition...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]

Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts
Also Known as: LLBA
- from CSA Databases
Linguistics, literacy, language acquisition, speech and hearing, and language research....   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Holdings: 1973 to present.
Supplemental URLs
    Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts
    Serials List (CSA)
    Classification Codes [incomplete?] (CSA)

Periodicals Index Online
Also Known as: PIO,PCI,Periodical Contents Index,Chadwyck PCI,Periodicals Contents Index
Humanities and social sciences. The scope is international, including journals in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and other Western languages. ...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]

Population Index
Covers fields of interest to demographers, including fertility, mortality, population size and growth, migration, nuptiality and the family, research methodology, projections and predictions, historic...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Holdings: 1986 to 2000.
Unrestricted Access

Proquest Dissertations and Theses Fulltext (formerly Dissertation Abstracts)
Also Known as: Digital Dissertations, Dissertation Abstracts, UMI, DAI, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (PQDT), Proquest Dissertations and Theses Fulltext
Indexing (since 1861) and abstracting (since 1980) for doctoral-level dissertations completed at North American universities. Page images or fulltext of all available dissertations - including Penn d...   [more]    [Add to PennTags]
Holdings: Indexing 1861-present, abstracts 1980-present, page-image or fulltext PDF for available dissertations dissertations from 1997 to the present.
Supplemental URLs
    old interface url