Contextual Sources

When you have an idea for a research project, it is often helpful to place your questions within the context of the literature.  Scholarly encyclopedias and bibliographies do just that.  Of course you will also need to search the literature via article databases for "literature reviews" and research studies, but first see if your topic is covered by either of these sources.

  The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics
Indepth articles that explain economic concepts, methods & historical developments and figures written by leading scholars.

  Oxford Bibliographies (Oxford University Press)  Tutorial
We subscribe to the following topics related to economics: International Relations, Islamic Studies, Latin American Studies, Management, Political Science and Psychology. Oxford bibliographies are designed to be starting points for research and offer peer-reviewed, annotated bibliographies.

  Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Economics and Finance
Presents essays of 15-30 pages written by academic subject experts on a range topics including econometrics, economic thought, financial economics, health economics, public economics, economic theory and economic development.

 Economic Article Databases: Best Bets

EconLit with Full Text (EBSCO)
Indexes and abstracts journal articles, books, working papers, and dissertations in the field of economics based on the Journal of Economic Literature's subject classification. Provides access to the full text of selected journals including all American Economic Association journals. Coverage goes back to 1886.

Google Scholar
Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. Scholar search tips

Scopus (Elsevier)
Provides citations and abstracts to peer-reviewed journals, books, and conference proceedings in all major disciplines. Provides information on citing and cited references for each article.

The Economist.com  Access Instructions
Offers international economic and business news and analysis in print and via podcasts.

Web of Science (Clarivate)  Tutorial
Web of Science is a multidisciplinary database providing access to the following: Social Sciences Citation Index (1956-present) Conference Proceedings Citation Index- Social Science & Humanities (1990-present).

Other Useful Article Databases

Economics touches on many other fields of study, so you may benefit by searching the literature of related disciplines.  Behavioral economics topics will be situated in the psychology literature.  Industrial economics may be covered in the general business article databases and questions related to trade may be well indexed by political science databases.  For a complete list of article databases by topic use our Subject Guides  Top databases are listed below.

 Articles

  ABI/INFORM Collection (ProQuest)

  AGRICOLA (National Agricultural Library/USDA)

  Business Abstracts with Full Text (EBSCO)

  Business Source Premier (EBSCO)

  ERIC (EBSCO)

  EconBiz  Tutorial

  FED in Print

  HeinOnline

  JSTOR (ITHAKA)

  MEDLINE (Web of Science, Clarivate)

  NBER National Bureau of Economic Research

  Nexis Uni  Limitations on Use

  PAIS International (ProQuest)

  PAISArchive [1915-1976]

  PsycINFO (ProQuest)  Tutorial

  Social Science Research Network (SSRN)  Limitations on Use

  Social Sciences Full Text (EBSCO)

  Sociological Abstracts (ProQuest)

Data & Statistics

Despite or because of the ubiquity of data and statistics, finding good data to work with can be vexing.  The following list of sources include open government data & proprietary subscribed data sets for browsing.  A common way to identify relevant data is by a careful reading of the data sections in research papers.  Databases that offer panel or time series data or simply index/abstract data are listed below.

 Statistics

  AidData

  Bureau of Economic Analysis

  Bureau of Labor Statistics

  Census of the U.S. Economy

  Center for Economic Studies (Census)

  China Data Online (China Marketing Research Co.)

  Conference Board Business & Economics Portfolio

  Data Citation Index (Clarivate)  Tutorial

  Data.gov

  Economist Intelligence Unit

  Eurostat

  FRED

  Federal Reserve Economic Research & Data

  Gallup Analytics and Brain  Tutorial

  Global Financial Data  Limitations on Use

  Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970

  ICPSR (Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan)  Access Instructions

  IMF Data Free

  International Labour Organization

  International Statistical Agencies

  OECD Statistics

  PRS International Country Risk Guide (ICRG) Tables  Limitations on Use

  Penn World Tables

  PolicyMap  Tutorial

  Principal Global Indicators

  Rodney Fort's Sports Business Data

  Social Explorer

  Statistical Abstract of the United States

  Statistical Insight (ProQuest)  Tutorial

  Trading Economics

  UKDS.stat

  UNESCO Institute for Statistics

  United Nations Statistics

  WRDS (Wharton Research Data Services)  Limitations on Use  Access Instructions

  World Bank - DataBank  Tutorial

 Books

  Falvey Library Catalog
Search Falvey Library's collection. Many titles are available electronically.
[Details]

  WorldCat (FirstSearch)
WorldCat is a catalog of library collections worldwide. Items can be requested via an inter-library loan request form.
WorldCat Step-by-Step is a self-paced interactive tutorial for students new to this resource.
[Details]

 Video

  HSTalks: The Business & Management Collection

  LinkedIn Learning

  O'Reilly for Higher Education  Tutorial  Access Instructions

Country Economic Reports & Forecasts

  ABI/INFORM Collection (ProQuest)

  Business Source Premier (EBSCO)

  EMIS Intelligence (Emerging Markets Information Service)

  Economist Intelligence Unit

  Mergent Online  Limitations on Use

  Evaluating Journals and Articles

Journal metrics & rankings are imperfect but frequently used ways to gage the quality of research studies.  The following tools publish journal level metrics such as impact factor, immediacy index,&  H Index to name a few.  For definitions and keys to understanding these metrics use the help links.

SJR Scimago

JCR Journal Citation Reports

Cabell's Directory of Publishing Opportunities

Peer reviewed research articles need to be evaluated for quality by considering the research methods, data used and analysis provided.  Nonetheless metrics such as citation counts do suggest which papers are garnering attention.  The following business databases offer article level metrics.

Scopus

Google Scholar

Web of Science (Clarivate)