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Religions and Theology: Databases

Spotlights

cover images from texts for historians

Translated Texts for Historians E-Library

Compiling material from 3 longstanding and well-respected book series this newly-launched digital compilation by Liverpool University Press makes available a range of historical sources from A.D. 300-800 translated into English, in many cases for the first time. Complementing the Aris & Phillips Classical Texts Online collection, the Translated Texts for Historians E-Library also extends the language pool of its source material beyond Greek and Latin to incorporate languages as varied as Armenian, Gothic and Old Irish, together with those of the Islamicate world, including Syriac and Arabic, giving researchers access and opportunity to widen both their reading and potential sources of comparison and contrast. The scope of the material within the repository is equally diverse and incorporates chronicles, letters, annals, formularies, political speeches, military and theological handbooks, poems, biblical and theological commentaries, sermons, church histories and records, Christian and pagan panegyric and polemic and lives of saints, bishops and popes.

Over 90 titles are now readily accessible and the collection might perhaps be best viewed as a foundational digital reserve for scholars operating across the Humanities at Manchester, either within the traditional confines of classics, ancient history and religions and theology, or interdisciplinary research groupings such as the Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (MEMS).

In line with our standard practice to ease discovery, in addition to offering a link to the collection as a discrete database, the library has ensured that each volume - a selection of which can be seen above - is individually indexed. You can also move seamlessly across the platform to view the Aris & Phillips Classical Texts Online collection which is also now newly accessible to researchers.

image with wording Coptic Gnostic Library Online

Coptic Gnostic Library Online

The Coptic Gnostic Library Online offers the only authoritative edition of many of the Coptic writings of the Gnostics from the first centuries AD and serves as the starting point for all research into ancient Gnosticism. Drawing together the work of decades of international scholarship, the collection brings together all the texts of the Nag Hammadi codices, both in the original Coptic and in translation. These materials, which literally begin where the Dead Sea Scrolls end, were unearthed in 1945 near the town of Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt and are considered of equivalent importance to their more famous forebears in bringing to light a wealth of information and insights into early Judaism and the roots of Christianity. Now available on Brill’s new online platform, Scholarly Editions, in a completely new design, and with enhanced search options throughout the entire publication the database is purpose-built to provide an uninterrupted reading experience. To that end it displays parallel texts side by side with each text possessing its own introduction, full scholarly notation and indexing of what amounts to more than 5,000 pages of print.

images from Holocaust enquiry

Prosecuting the Holocaust

As the subtitle of ‘British investigations into Nazi crimes, 1944-1949’ makes clear, Prosecuting the Holocaust comprises a collection of primary sources documenting the British governments efforts to gather evidence and prosecute Nazi crimes during this five year time frame. Drawn from the UK’s National Archives and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the material sheds light on almost every aspect of the Holocaust – from concentration camp ‘systems’ and medical war crimes, to the Nuremberg trials and liaison between allied powers and organisations. Critically, it also affords a voice to those who experienced such atrocities, many of whom testified about their experiences immediately after the war. As such it further bolsters our collections in this necessary area of study – most notably the testimonies offered in the USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive and the Fortunoff Video Archive together with Testaments to the Holocaust: documents and rare printed materials from the Wiener Library, London. As well as traditional disciplines such as History and Religion and Theology, interdisciplinary research clusters such as the Cultural History of War should also benefit from this new acquisition.

What is a database?

Databases provide access to high-quality peer-reviewed journal articles, conference proceedings, book chapters, dissertations and other sources.

These databases have been especially chosen for this subject area.

When carrying out your research for a piece of work, you will need to search more than one database to find all of the journal articles relevant to your topic, as each database covers different journals.

Key databases - Religion

General databases - Religion

Newspaper databases

The library provides comprehensive access to a vast archive of British and overseas newspapers, including electronic access to many current publications. Newspapers are an excellent primary source research tool, not only providing reports about events and issues but also editorials and letters that can be extremely useful for deeper understanding. Access the Newspaper guide for further information.

The latest acquisition to our newspaper databases. Users can study the progression of issues over time by browsing issues extending from the newspaper’s first publication in May 1827 to effectively the present day (within 1 week), including articles, photos, advertisements, classified ads, obituaries, cartoons, and more. Searching facilitated by user-friendly support and indexing tools, with hit-term highlighting, searchable PDFs, and image downloads in PDF format.

Full text databases - Religion

What is grey literature?

Grey literature refers to research that is either unpublished or has been published in non-commercial form. The term includes the following types of information:

  • government reports, policy statements and issued papers.
  • conference proceedings.
  • pre-prints and post-prints of articles.
  • theses and dissertations.
  • research reports.
  • geological and geophysical surveys.
  • maps.
  • newsletters and bulletins.
  • fact sheets.

British Library

The British Library reports, Conferences and Theses can be searched for through the British Library Integrated Catalogue.

Use these p tags if you need multiple paragraphs

Conference Proceedings Citation Index

The Conference Proceedings Citation Index Literature via Web of Science is taken from the most significant conferences, symposia, seminars, colloquia, workshops, and conventions worldwide. Available in two editions: Sciences & Technology and Social Science Literature from the most significant conferences, symposia, seminars, colloquia, workshops, and conventions worldwide. Available in two editions: Sciences & Technology and Social Science.

Google Scholar

Google Scholar provides a quick way to search for scholarly literature across disciplines and sources. You can find articles, theses, books, abstracts and grey literature from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other sources.

GreyNet: Grey Literature

Grey Net provides information about grey literature. GreySource Index provides a list of web-based grey literature resources.

MIAR

MIAR is a matrix of data from more than 100 international indexing and abstracting databases (citation, multidisciplinary or specialised databases) and journal repertoires, which is developed with the purpose of providing useful information for the identification of scientific journals and the analysis of their diffusion. The system works through the elaboration of a correspondence matrix between the journals, identified by their ISSN, and the databases and directories that index or include them.

MIAR has more than 48,000 journal records, but a search in MIAR using a valid ISSN number will return information on the diffusion of any journal in the world at the sources analysed by MIAR, whether or not it has its own record in MIAR.

MIAR 2023 live. Information Matrix for the Analysis of Journals.

OpenGrey

OpenGrey is a multidisciplinary European resource which provides open access to 700,000 bibliographical references of grey literature produced in Europe. It covers science, technology, biomedical science, economics, social science and humanities.
Examples of grey literature include technical or research reports, doctoral dissertations, conference papers and official publications.

Science Gov

Science.gov searches over 55 databases and over 2100 selected websites from 15 federal agencies, offering 200 million pages of authoritative U.S. government science information including research and development results. Science.gov is governed by the interagency Science.gov Alliance.

Social Science Research Network

Social Science Research Network (SSRN) is devoted to the rapid worldwide dissemination of social science research and is composed of a number of specialized research networks in each of the social sciences.

Scopus

Scopus is a user-friendly database covering some 12,000 journals from all aspects of science, technology and medicine, with some quite sophisticated features.

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