Matching databases with research topics
Religion is a vast subject. It can be and is studied using a wide variety of lenses.
The indexes listed on this page are among the best for obtaining scholarly articles in their several disciplines.
For seminary researchers and other students of religion, the databases in the Religious Indexes box should have first consult priority. They provide the most concentrated coverage of the scholarly journal literature in the areas of religion, theology and church history.
The indexes in the Historical indexes box provide further supplementary sources for students of church history.
And the indexes in the Social Sciences Indexes box provide good coverage of multi-disciplinary studies of religion.
Archival Indexes
- JSTOR [electronic resource] : the scholarly journal archive.A historical archive of scholarly journals. What sets this resource apart from other more religiously focused indexes is its extensive state level historical journals coverage. While there is overlap, the researcher will find many journal titles here that do not appear in the other resources on this page.
Religious Indexes
The indexes in this list provide strong coverage of scholarly journals in Protestant theology, ecclesiastics and history.
- ATLA religion database with ATLASerials This link opens in a new window
Indexes comprehensively scholarly and non-scholarly journals in religion and theology.
- Info Trac Religion and PhilosophyGood coverage of scholarly Islamic, Christian and interfaith journals. Includes some full text.
- Religion & philosophy collection This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text access to an electronic index with incredibly broad, multi-disciplinary journal subject coverage that is primarily (though not exclusively) religion and philosophy focused.
- Southern Baptist Periodical Index (Online)Indexes Southern Baptist affiliated periodicals including denominational serials, seminary magazines, scholarly journals, and professional publications. An excellent resource for ephemeral publications not indexed by commercial indexing services and an important resource for anyone researching Southern Baptist history or theology from the late 20th century forward. It is a cumulative index to periodicals published by corporations related to the Convention.
Historical Indexes
Consult these indexes for supplemental resources in church history.
- America: History and LIfeFirst place to look for scholarly articles on American and Canadian history.
- Historical AbstractsHistorical Abstracts is an exceptional resource that covers the history of the world (excluding the United States and Canada) from 1450 to the present, including world history, military history, women's history, history of education, and more - essential
Social Science Indexes
Consult these indexes for supplemental resources of ecclesiastical issues and developments from social science perspective.
- PsycINFO This link opens in a new window
Provides citations and summaries of scholarly journal articles, book chapters, books, and dissertations in psychology, behavioral science, and mental health.
- SAGE journals online This link opens in a new window
Provides online, full-text access to journals published by SAGE Publishers to which Baylor University Libraries subscribe.
- ScopusScopus is the largest abstract and citation database, including peer-reviewed titles from international publishers, Open Access journals, conference proceedings, trade publications, quality web sources.
- Sociological abstracts This link opens in a new window
Abstracts and indexes the international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences.
