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Franciscan School of Theology: Finding Articles

A guide to research for students of the Franciscan School of Theology and advanced students of religion and theology at the University of San Diego.

Google Scholar

Google Scholar allows you to search the web for a variety of written work from a variety of academic sources.  You can set up the Scholar Preferences to show in your results when an item is available through USD; follow the Scholar Preferences link to the Library Links section on the page.  When you access Google Scholar through the link below, that preference is already set.

Google Scholar Search

ILL - Interlibrary Loan

Interlibrary Loan at Copley Library

Enter here to order articles.

Remember, the Circuit will allow you to retrieve books that are available for checkout from Circuit member institutions, but this does not include journal articles.  Use ILLiad to request articles, and be sure to provide as much information about the article as possible.

Start your research here:

Acta Sanctorum The Acta Sanctorum Database contains the text of the sixty-eight printed volumes of Acta Sanctorum published in Antwerp and Brussels by the Société des Bollandistes, from the two January volumes published in 1643 to the Propylaeum to December published in 1940.

ATLA Religion Database The leading international database indexing journals, books and book chapters in the scholarly fields of religion. This resource covers such topics as Biblical studies, world religions, Church history, and religious perspectives on social issues.

Biblical Archaeology Online Archive The BAS Online Archive is an educational Web site containing the editorial content of each issue of the bimonthly magazine Biblical Archaeology Review from 1975 to present, as well as five books published by the Biblical Archaeology Society.

Catholic Periodical and Literature Index The Catholic Periodical and Literature Index Online is the product of a partnership between ATLA and the Catholic Library Association. The database includes indexed citations to articles published in Roman Catholic periodicals, papal documents, church promulgations, and books about the Catholic faith that are authored by Catholics and/or produced by Catholic publishers. This database contains more than 300,000 records covering Roman Catholic publications

Historical Abstracts 1954-present. International database for research on history of all regions (except the U.S. and Canada) from 1450 to the current decade.

Iter Gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance Iter, meaning a journey or a path in Latin, was created for the advancement of learning in the study and teaching of the Middle Ages and Renaissance (400-1700) . ITER resources include the Iter Bibliography among others.

JSTOR offers a high-quality, interdisciplinary archive to support scholarship and teaching. It includes archives of over one thousand leading academic journals across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, as well as select monographs and other materials valuable for academic work. The entire corpus is full-text searchable, offers search term highlighting, includes high-quality images, and is interlinked by millions of citations and references.

New Testament Abstracts New Testament Abstracts Online is a product of a partnership between ATLA and the Weston Jesuit School of Theology. The database has become an indispensable research and bibliographic aid for scholars, librarians, clergy and students of the New Testament and its historical milieu. The database contains more than 40,000 article abstracts, 1,200 review abstracts, 14,900 book abstracts, and 50 software abstracts.

Old Testament Abstracts Old Testament Abstracts Online is a product of a partnership between ATLA and the Catholic Biblical Association. The database features indexing and abstracts for journal articles, monographs, multi-author works, and software related to Old Testament studies. Topics covered include antiquities, archaeology, biblical theology, philology and much more.

Patrologia Latina an electronic full-text Latin version of the works of the Church Fathers from 200 A.D. to 1216 A.D. It contains all prefatory material, original texts, critical apparatus and index.

RAMBI (description forthcoming)


Other useful sources:

Academic Search Premier Provides full text for over 6,940 scholarly publications including social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, language and linguistics, arts & literature, health sciences, and ethnic studies.

Dissertations and Theses Full Text The database includes bibliographic citations for materials ranging from the first U.S. dissertation, accepted in 1861, to those accepted as recently as last semester. Citations for dissertations published from 1980 forward also include 350-word abstracts written by the author. Citations for master's theses from 1988 forward include 150-word abstracts. Dissertations from 1997 to present are available in full-text PDF format.

Project Muse Provides online access to the full text of over 100 scholarly journals in the arts and humanities, social sciences, and mathematics.

Peer-Reviwed Journals

Peer-reviewed journals, also known as Refereed Journals or Scholarly Journals, are...

  • scholarly journals with articles that have been critically evaluated and approved by several scholars (expert peer-reviewers) before inclusion in a journal, not just by an editor.
  • reviewed by peers to assess the quality of the methodology, data, and conclusions presented.

Peer review lends credibility to the article because the process confirms the reliability of the data and the findings of the research.


Verify that a journal is peer-reviewed with Ulrich's Periodical Directory

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