1. Type in the title of the article in the SearchBox and it will link to the full-text article if AU Library has it.
2. If you only have the journal title, the Find Journals link will tell you which AU database has the full text of the journal.
American University users can obtain a copy of almost every published article or book in these databases.
For AU Library databases, if the full-text article is not available, click on the 
button. Or use the Interlibrary Loan form. The article can be obtained through the Consortium Loan Service (2 business days) or Interlibrary Loan (longer than 2 days).
The databases in this page provide the citation, abstract, and in some cases, the full text of journal and magazine articles, books, and dissertations. They are sorted by order of prominence and then alphabetically.
Use only articles from scholarly journals for literature reviews, not those from newspapers or magazines or technical reports.
To save time one can search the following ProQuest databases simultaneously. Directions: Click on
one of these databases; click on "Change" at the top of
the page; and then select the appropriate databases. 
To save time one can search the following EBSCO databases simultaneously. Directions: Click on one of these databases; click on "Choose Databases" at the top of the page; and then select the appropriate databases.
Although the following databases focus on Africa, almost all the databases on this page cover Africa. Unless listed as a "free resource," all the databases are restricted to .
The following databases have journal articles that focus on Latin America and the Hispanic population. Many of the journals are from Latin America. Unless listed as a "free resource," all the databases are restricted to .
Use these databases if a comprehensive search is needed. They are not a good place to start one's research.
Boolean operators:
AND - use to narrow a search and get fewer and more relevant results.
elections and voters
OR - use to broaden a search and get more results. Good for synonyms and words with variant spellings. Add parentheses when using OR.
("latin america" or argentina or colombia)
(organization or organisation)
NOT - use to narrow a search to get more relevant results
mexico not "new mexico"
Truncation:
Use to find words with different word endings. Most databases use an asterisk (*)
e.g. immigrant* yields immigrant, immigrants
e.g. immigra* yields immigrant, immigrants, immigrate, immigration, immigrating, etc.
Proximity search:
Use to find words that are close to each other on a page.
It is one way to find more relevant results.
Each family of databases has its own command words.
EBSCO:
n# = words near another word in any order, within a certain number
fundamental* n3 islam*
Factiva:
near# = words near another word in any order, within a certain number
president* near3 speech
HeinOnline
~# = words near each other in any order, within a certain number
"watershed planning"~10
Nexis Uni:
w/#=words within a specified number of words, in any order
"human rights" w/2 violations
w/s = words within the same sentence
crime w/s (dc or "district of columbia")
w/p = words within the same paragraph
gays w/p military
Ovid:
adj# = words near another word in any order, within a certain number
ProQuest:
near/# = words near another word in any order, within a certain number
"renewable energy" near/5 viable
Scopus
w/# = words near another word in any order, within a certain number
Web of Science:
near/# = words near another word in any order, within a certain number
government near/3 fund*