Academic databases and search engines

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This page contains a partial list of representative major databases and search engines useful in an academic setting for finding and accessing articles in academic journals, or in repositories, archives, or other collections of scientific and other articles. As the distinction between a database and a search engines, is unclear for these complex   document retrieval systems,
 * See the general List of search engines, for all-purpose search engines that can be used for academic purposes.
 * See bibliographic databases for information about databases giving bibliographic information about finding books and journal articles,

Note that "free" or "subscription" can refer both to the availability of the database or of the journal articles included. This has been indicated as precisely as possible in the lists below, which are current as of October, 2006.

General

 * Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (subscription-based database aggregator)
 * EBSCO/EPNET (subscription index to subscription articles in a variety of fields)
 * Google Scholar (free index to mostly subscription articles)
 * Ovid Technologies (subscription-based collections and indexes)
 * ProQuest (subscription index to subscription articles)
 * Scirus (free index to academic web content)
 * Scopus (subscription-based index to journal articles, web content, patents, etc.)
 * Sens Public databases, Journals, other web content in social sciences, art and philosophy (several languages)
 * Web of Science (subscription-based database aggregator)
 * Windows Live Academic (free index, still in beta)

Publisher or platform-specific

 * Blackwell Synergy (subscription-based collection)
 * Atypon Link (Platform for various publishers: subscription-based collection)
 * HighWire (Platform for various publisher: subscription-based and free collection)
 * IngentaConnect (Platform for various publisher: subscription-based collection)
 * JSTOR (Backfiles of many major journals; subscription-based collection)

Open Access Journals

 * Directory of Open Access Journals (free collection and index)
 * LivRe! (free list of journals)
 * Open J-Gate (free collection of articles)

Technology

 * IETInspec (physics, electrical engineering, electronics, communications, control engineering, computers, computing, information technology, manufacturing, production and mechanical engineering)


 * IEEEIEEE Xplore (electrical engineering, computer science, and electronics)


 * ACM (Computer science and engineering)

Natural sciences, mathematics and computer science

 * ADS (Astrophysics Data System) (free index to Astrophysics, Geophysics & Physics journals and conference proceedings)
 * Arxiv (free index to free articles).
 * CiteSeer (free index to free and subscription-based articles)
 * The Collection of Computer Science Bibliographies (free)
 * SPIRES (free index to all the literature of particle physics) most articles are free via Arxiv but it also indexes subscription journals and conferences.

Social sciences

 * ERIC (Educational Resource Information Center) (free index to subscription articles on education)
 * NBER (free index to subscription articles in economics)
 * RePEc (free index to partly free articles in economics)
 * SSRN (free index to mostly free articles in the social sciences)

Medicine

 * PubMed (free index to free and subscription articles)
 * HubMed (free alternative interface to PubMed)
 * KMLE Medical Dictionary (free access to multiple medical dictionaries, drug reference, and pubmed)