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English 300: American Gothic Literature: Finding Articles

Literature Article Databases

These are some great databases to get you started researching literary topics:

  • Academic Search Complete (EBSCOhost)
    Covers a wide range of popular and scholarly publications in many subject area including literature, literary criticism and more.
  • Biography Reference Bank
    Contains 40,000 full text biographies of authors, artists, and other people.
  • Contemporary Authors
    Includes biographical and bibliographical information on nearly 100,000 modern authors, including gothic authors from the mid-nineteenth century forward.
  • Gale Virtual Reference Library 
    Gale Virtual Reference Library delivers great reference resources in a database format. Subject areas include History, Literature, Multicultural Studies, Social Science and Technology. Click on "Show All" in database to view expanded list of titles in each subject area.
  • Humanities Source (EBSCOhost)
    Covers English-language periodicals in the subjects of literature, literary criticism and more.
  • JSTOR Arts & Sciences I, II, III & IV Collection
    An archival project which provides full-text access to complete runs of back issues of scholarly journals in topics including language and literature, literary criticism, folklore, and much more. Search this database and automatically search the content of Project Muse too.
  • Literature Criticism Online
    This is an electronic subscription to the Gale series of literary criticism.
  • Literary Reference Center (EBSCOhost) 
    A comprehensive literary reference database which includes the content of MagillOnLiterature Plus and offers information from over 1,000 books.
  • MLA International Bibliography (EBSCOhost)
    This is the largest and most comprehensive database covering scholarship in the modern languages, linguistics, literature, literary criticism, folklore, and drama.
  • SAGE Premier Journals Online
    Provides electronic access to peer-reviewed, full-text journals Humanities, Social Sciences, and other subjects.

Access more online databases by selecting the Articles/Databases tab from the box on the Library homepage.

Andersen Library subscribes to many databases that can be used to locate periodical (journal, magazine and newspaper) articles, as well as book chapters, dissertations and the like. Online databases are the preferred way to find recent articles. If you need older articles, or cannot find any articles on your topic using online databases, ask a Librarian for assistance with researching and using other resources.

Databases list articles that may or may not be owned by the Library.

Databases and the full text articles they contain can be accessed both on and off-campus.

Sample searches in literary databases:

(relig* OR christian*) AND dickinson AND emily

"angel at the grave" AND edith AND wharton

How do you know whether an article is scholarly or not? Check out the Scholarly Journal v. Popular Magazine Articles guide.

Find the Full Text From a Database

journal articlesMost databases have some full text articles and/or chapters in addition to citations. To access the full text there will be a button or text to click on that says something like: PDF, HTML, or Full Text.

When an article is not available in that database, use Find It button button/link to determine whether and where the UWW libraries have it. One of several things will happen when you click on it.

  1. You will be taken to a "LibKey" screen with one or more Full Text Format Options on the right side. Select Article Link to go to a database that does have the full text.
  2. You will be taken to Research@UWW. To see whether an article, chapter, book, video, etc. is available look in the:
    1. View Online section to see if there is a link to the item in one of the libraries' subscription databases.
    2. Get It section to see if there are other ways to access the full text of the article.

    3. If you have a citation for something UWW does not have access to AND are not in a database or Research@UWW, use the Journals Search (also on the libraries' homepage) to determine whether and where the Library has a particular periodical (journal, magazine, newspaper, etc.). If:

    UW-Whitewater has it, click on the link provided to the periodical and then search the periodical for it. UW-Whitewater does NOT have it, go to the library homepage, select My Accounts, and Logon to ILLiad, then fill out the request form.

    In the Get It section you will see other ways to access the full text of the article. Either:

    UW-Whitewater has the item physically in one of the UWW libraries. If at your campus, you will go to the listed collection to get it. If at the other campus, use the "Request" option to have it sent to your campus. Some people who fit this set of criteria can use ILLiad to have articles or book chapters scanned as a PDFs for you to access online. UW-Whitewater does NOT have the needed item in one of the UWW libraries. Select Please sign in for more request options --> Sign in. Select UW-W Students / Staff Login >, and then Log in. Complete the multifactor authentication through Duo. Click on the We Can Get it for You (Document Delivery/ILLiad) for articles and chapters or UW-Request for books, media, government and other items.

    How? Check out the How to Use Find It and the Journals Search guide or watch this How to Use Find It video

Off-Campus Access

Databases and the full text content they contain can be accessed both on and off-campus.

The first time you click on a database name, you'll be prompted to log into the proxy server with your UW-W Net-ID and password (just like you do to access your UW-W email, WINS account, and Canvas courses). After a while of non-use you will be timed out. Just sign in again.

If you have issues logging in or accessing online full text articles and books, please check the Troubleshooting section of our Get Help page for known issues. The three most common solutions are: 

  1. Use the most recent version of Chrome, Firefox, or Safari browser (Edge and Internet Explorer can cause access problems)
  2. Use Citrix (step by step instructions) from this webpage: https://gateway.uww.edu
  3. Use the VPN (Virtual Private Network). Want to watch a video on VPN? See http://youtu.be/hE-f8-Zp7jU

Note: Research@UWW does not require that you sign in at first. However, you should sign in anyway after your first search for seamless access to more full text and to Request/UW Request borrowing.

Get Help: Ask a Librarian