Judaic Studies

A guide to researching Judiaism and Jewish culture

Finding Articles

A database is a structured collection of data. The type of data contained in any given database can vary. Library databases are often collections of scholarly peer-reviewed articles and book chapters; however, others contain maps, interviews, newspaper articles, etc.

Library databases can be broken into two categories:

full-text - these databases let you read articles in their entirety i.e. "full-text"
index - these databases only show you citation information and sometimes abstracts as well.
- Oftentimes they have "full-text" links that will take you out to the database to a different part of the library online where you can access entire articles.
- If an article doesn't have a "full-text" link, you can use the citation information to request it for free through Interlibrary Loan.

Best Bet Databases

ATLA Religion Database This link opens in a new window
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Covers journal articles, essays and book reviews that make up the research literature of all major religious faiths and denominations, 1949-present.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
Historical Abstracts Full Text This link opens in a new window
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Journal articles, many in full text, and citations to books and dissertations on world history from 1450, published 1954-present.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
Index to Jewish Periodicals This link opens in a new window
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Citations to English-language articles, book reviews, and feature stories in 160 journals devoted to Jewish affairs, 1988 to present.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies This link opens in a new window
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An index to articles and other scholarly literature on the Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa, 1900-present.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
Oxford Bibliographies: Jewish Studies This link opens in a new window
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Expert discussion of topics and sub-topics in Jewish Studies, with extensive annotated lists of best books and articles.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.

Multidisciplinary Databases

Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
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Scholarly journals from all academic disciplines - an excellent starting point for multidisciplinary research projects. 3,200 full-text journals. Coverage from 1975 to present.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
HathiTrust This link opens in a new window
Academic library partnership providing searching and downloading of public-domain books and specialized services for text mining projects.

Please see more... below for what is available to UMass faculty, staff and students and what is available for community patrons.
For anyone in the world, you can access these materials in HathiTrust:
- Search across the entire collection
- Read and view works that are “full-view”
- Search within works that are “limited (search-only)”
- Download a single page at a time from works that have download restrictions (e.g., works that are in the public domain but were digitized by Google or other vendors with contractual limitations)
- Download an entire work that doesn’t have download restrictions (e.g., works digitized by Internet Archive and other organizations, works that have been opened with a Creative Commons license)
For UMass faculty, staff and students, you can additionally access the following if you log in with your NetID and password using the HathiTrust link above:
- Download public domain works that have download restrictions (see “Can I download a whole book?” for more information);
- Create, save and share public or private collections?;
- Access copyrighted works lawfully in appropriate circumstances (see accessibility and out-of-print and brittle for more information).
Members can not view or download works that are “limited (search-only)”. See “Is it possible to view a volume that is Limited (search-only)?” for more information.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
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Core scholarly journals from a range of disciplines, dating from the earliest issue of each journal to a few years before present.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
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An index to journal articles and other scholarly literature on literature, literary theory and criticism, linguistics, folklore, and (since 1996) film, 1920s -
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
Project Muse This link opens in a new window
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Scholarly journals and books in the humanities and social sciences published by university presses; searchable by journal issue, author, and keyword, 1996-present.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
Social Science Abstracts This link opens in a new window
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Citations to journal articles in the social sciences, 1983-present.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.