Research Guides: Area and Global Studies: Latin American and Iberian: Databases/Articles

Databases for Getting Started

The following databases are good places to begin research on topics relating to Latin American Studies.

Academic OneFile This link opens in a new window
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This database provides references, abstracts, or entire articles from more than 8,000 scholarly and general interest periodicals.
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Contains the complete text of major newspapers published throughout the world since the 1970s. Included are Spanish and Portuguese language newspapers.
Vendor Lyrasis. Publisher LexisNexis.
ProQuest Statistical Insight This link opens in a new window
A database comprised of statistical tables and references to other statistical sources.

Library of Congress Federal Research Division: Country Studies
Individual country studies that provide overviews and social, economic, and political analysis.

Latin American Studies Databases

Databases can be the most efficient way to locate research on a topic. Some databases organize information on articles that are published within many, different journals. The following databases have a special focus on Latin America:

Caribbean Literature This link opens in a new window
A searchable collection of poetry and fiction produced in the region during the 19th and 20th centuries
Includes more than 10,000 pages of works written in languages such as Papiamento, French Creole, Jamaican Creole, Belizean Kriol, Singlish, and Sranam Tongo.Translations of major works, dictionaries, and reference materials are included.
The acquisition of this database was made possible through the support of the Unidel Foundation.
Clase and Periodica This link opens in a new window
Clase (1975 to present) indexes documents published in Latin American journals specializing in the social sciences and humanities. Periodica (1978 to present) covers journals specializing in science and technology.
Handbook of Latin American Studies This link opens in a new window
Multidisciplinary bibliography of published material on Latin America, 1935 to the present.
Additional information such as abbreviations, acronyms, subject term glossary, and search tips can be found in the Handbook of Latin American Studies (HLAS): A Resource Guide.
Latin American Newspapers, Series I This link opens in a new window
More than 35 nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Latin American newspapers. Titles are from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela, and elsewhere.
Part of the World Newspaper Archive, which can be found on the A-Z Databases page.
This collection can also be searched on Readex AllSearch, an integrated platform that combines Readex’s primary sources into a single cross-searchable interface.
Informe Academico This link opens in a new window
Provides a wide range of full-text Spanish and Portuguese language scholarly journals and magazines both from and about Latin America.
Archives of Latin America and Caribbean History 16th-20th Century This link opens in a new window
A multidisciplinary database that includes a comprehensive range of content for the region, both for current issues and events in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as for historical perspective back to the colonial period. (Coverage: 15th -20th c.)

Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC)
The Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) is a cooperative digital library of resources from and about the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean.
Latin American Network Information Center (LANIC)
A comprehensive information service for Latin America on the Internet.
Latin American Pamphlets
Scarce and unique Latin American pamphlets published during the 19th and the early 20th centuries that are located in Harvard's Widener Library.
Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP)
LAPOP, a Vanderbuilt University project, presents databases containing political perspectives and public opinion surveys from Latin America.
Linking the Americas
A Stanford University project that offers more than one hundred Latin American Studies titles from the Stanford University Press and rare published and archival materials from the Stanford University Libraries Special Collections.

Databases Related to Latin American Studies

There are many databases that are useful for the study of various aspects of Latin American Studies. The following are the ones most frequently consulted, but researchers should also consult the Library Databases page to determine whether there are other discipline-specific databases that are suitable for their given research topic. For example, researchers pursuing topics related to the economic policy of a specific Latin American country could also consult business and economics databases such as EconLit or General BusinessFile ASAP.

America: History and Life This link opens in a new window
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Index of scholarly literature covering the history and culture of the U.S. and Canada, from prehistory to the present.
Provides indexing of academic journals dating back to 1954, with some coverage for titles back to the early 20th century.
Anthropology Plus This link opens in a new window
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Compilation of the Anthropological Index Online and Anthropological Literature databases. An extensive index of bibliographic materials covering the fields of anthropology, archaeology, and related interdisciplinary research. (Coverage: late 19th c. --)
Biography in Context This link opens in a new window
Biographical information on historically significant figures and present-day newsmakers from around the world and across all disciplines and subject areas.
Biography Reference Bank This link opens in a new window
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Contains biographies, obituaries, and photographs. Many of the biographies are enhanced with full text, abstracts, and citations. Biographical subjects represent all fields and nationalities. (Coverage: antiquity --)
Columbia International Affairs Online This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive source for theory and research in international affairs. Each section of CIAO is updated with new material regularly.
CIAO is divided into the following categories: working papers, conference proceedings, journals (i.e., abstracts of journal articles), books, policy briefs, economic indicators, links and resources, schedule of events, and maps and country data.
Criminal Justice Abstracts This link opens in a new window
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Bibliographic database for criminal justice and criminology research. Provides cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts for journals covering all related subjects, including forensic sciences, corrections, policing, criminal law, and investigation. (Coverage 1968 --)
EconLit This link opens in a new window
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Indexed bibliography, with selected abstracts, of publications on economics
The American Economic Associations electronic bibliography of economics literature throughout the world. Contains abstracts, indexing, and links to full-text articles. Provides comprehensive information on accounting, capital markets, econometrics, economic forecasting, government regulations, labor economics, monetary theory, urban economics and more. (Coverage: 1886 --)
Ethnologue: Languages of the World This link opens in a new window
Provides insight into each of the world’s nearly 7,500 known languages — whether used daily by over a billion people or existing only as a memory of cultural heritage.
GenderWatch This link opens in a new window
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Full-text collection of international journals, magazines, newsletters, regional publications, special reports and conference proceedings devoted to womens and gender issues. (Coverage: mid-1970s --)
Contains a significant body of archival material dating back to the mid-1970s. Additional archival material continues to be added.
Gale OneFile: Business This link opens in a new window
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Journals, investment reports, directory listings and newswire releases, as well as indexing of national newspapers.
Excellent source of information on management theories, business law, key industries, mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures, international trade, new technologies, small and emerging companies, marketing and advertising, job-hunting strategies, and banking.
Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new window
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Index of literature covering world history (excluding the U.S. and Canada) from the 15th century to the present. Subjects include world history, military history, womens history, history of education and more. Indexes 2,300+ academic journals in over 40 languages. (Coverage: 1952 --)
Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window
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Up-to-date analysis, biographical information, overviews, full-text literary criticism, and reviews on more than 130,000 authors and their works in all disciplines, all time periods, and from around the world.
MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
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Citations for articles, books, book chapters, and more. When available, includes links to full-text resources from the library and in open access publications. Covers a range of humanities subjects, including world languages and literatures, linguistics, dramatic arts, film, folklore, rhetoric and writing, teaching of language, and history of publishing. (Coverage: 1926 --)
Can be searched in conjunction with the MLA Directory of Periodicals, which contains all information available on journals and series on the Bibliographys Master List. The Directory of Periodicals is included in the Bibliography.
PAIS Index This link opens in a new window
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Covers public policy issues and emphasizes factual and statistical information. Print and electronic journals in the social sciences are indexed with particular attention to articles that bear on public policy, administration and legislation. Business topics are covered, with emphasis on economic factors, industry surveys, business-societal interactions and similar issues, rather than details of business operations. (Coverage: 1915 --)
Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new window
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Indexes the international literature of sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. (Coverage: 1952 --)
Can also be searched as part Social Services Abstracts.
Teatro Espaol del Siglo de Oro This link opens in a new window
Full-text of the most important dramatic works of 16th and 17th century Spain.
Women's Studies International This link opens in a new window
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Bibliographic database for womens studies and feminist research. A valuable resource for many disciplines, including sociology, history, international relations, humanities.
Provides indexing and abstracts for essential sources including: journals, newsletters, bulletins, books, book chapters, reports, theses, dissertations, and grey literature.
World News Connection Archive This link opens in a new window
Started in 1995 by providing access to materials from around the world, selected and translated into English by analysts from the U.S. Government’s domestic and overseas bureaus. Daily updates were sourced from newspapers, television and radio broadcasts, online sources, conference proceedings, periodicals, and non-classified reports, and provided timely coverage of the latest socioeconomic, political, scientific, technical, and environmental issues and events. Ultimately WNC grew to include over 500 news sources from over 130 countries. (Coverage: 1995-2013)
Daily updates were discontinued after December 31, 2013, but researchers can still access the Archive, which contains over 1 million foreign newspaper articles, broadcast transcripts and datelines from Beijing, Beirut, Bogota, Cairo, Jakarta, Iraq, Mogadishu, Qatar, Ramallah, Sarajevo, Vienna, and hundreds of other locations around the world.