Research Guides: Myths, Fairy Tales and Folklore: Finding Articles

Database Search Tips

Here are tips for better search results in databases. This usage works on most databases, but check 'Help' sections for supported search syntax.

Boolean: (using operators: and, or, not)

fairy tale AND cinderella searches for occurrences of both words within scope defined.

snow white OR sleeping beauty searches for one or all, but both are not required.

snow white NOT disney searches for occurrences of the words ‘snow white’ without use of the word ‘disney.’

(snow white NOT disney) AND sleeping beauty searches for occurrences of the words ‘snow white’ without use of the word ‘disney,’ then also requires the words ‘sleeping beauty.’

Truncation:

art* searches for art, arts, artistic, artful, etc.

Wildcard:

m?n searches for man and men.

General databases

General databases contain content from a variety of subject areas and publication types. This will allow you to look at your research from a wide perspective. Be sure to use the search refinements each database may offer including: date, document type, and source type.

ProQuest Central This link opens in a new window
ProQuest Central is a large, multidisciplinary database with over 11,000 titles, with over 8,000 titles in full-text. It serves as the central resource for researchers at all levels in all markets. Over 160 subjects areas are covered extensively in this product including business and economics, health and medical, news and world affairs, technology, social sciences and more.
Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Online collection of dictionaries, encyclopedias, biographical sources, quotations, bilingual dictionaries, and measurement conversions covering topics from the arts to the sciences.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
JSTOR provides access to scholarly journals, primarily in the humanities and social sciences. In addition to journal articles, users can access book chapters, ebooks, and primary source documents.
Project Muse This link opens in a new window
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Provides full-text access to high quality humanities, arts, and social sciences journals from scholarly publishers.
Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Google Scholar is a central search for scholarly literature. It covers disciplines and sources, peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations.
EBSCO Discovery Service This link opens in a new window
EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) encompasses articles in databases across many disciplines. Users can locate peer reviewed articles, videos, audio files, images, and more from a range of subjects.

Full download of DRM-protected ebooks requires EBSCO account registration and Adobe Digital Editions.
Note: NYU Libraries is retiring EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) in June 2025. The Catalog Search replaces EDS as the tool for searching across multiple publishers’ databases and platforms. You can also use EBSCOhost to search across the full set of EBSCO-only databases.

Literature Specific databases

Unlike the general databases, subject-specific databases generally focus solely on journal articles as a publication type and do not have a broad, multidisciplinary approach. This is a brief list of some of the many databases that would be useful in the study of Mythology, Fairy Tales and Folklore Literature.

Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window
Literature Resource Center offers biographical and other background information for research on literary topics, authors, and their works. Its coverage includes all genres and disciplines, all time periods, and all regions of the world. Literature Resource Center's content comes from the Dictionary of Literary Biography, Contemporary Authors, Contemporary Literary Criticism, and more, including full text of selected poems, plays, and short stories.
MLA International Bibliography (MLAIB) This link opens in a new window
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The MLA International Bibliography provides bibliographic records for books, book chapters, journal articles, and dissertations published in the fields of modern languages, literatures, folklore, and linguistics. Full text is available for some articles. The MLAIB covers items published from around 1920 to the present.
Children's Literature Comprehensive Database (CLCD) This link opens in a new window
The Children's Literature Comprehensive Database (CLCD) provides reviews and information for children's books, ranging from board books to YA novels and nonfiction. Find books based on genre, reading level, age range, awards won, and additional categories.
Arts & Humanities Database This link opens in a new window
Arts & Humanities Database features hundreds of titles covering Art, Architecture, Design, History, Philosophy, Music, Literature, Theatre and Cultural Studies.
Humanities Source This link opens in a new window
Humanities Source includes full text access to journals. It combines various Humanities related databases, including the American Humanities Index.
Literature Criticism Online This link opens in a new window
Literature Criticism Online includes the contents of several multidisciplinary series, including Contemporary Literary Criticism and Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. The collection includes biographical essays and selected literary criticism for authors from the classical period to the present day.
Periodicals Index Online This link opens in a new window
Indexes millions of articles published in over 4,250 periodicals in the humanities and social sciences across more than 300 years.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
Eighteenth Century Collections Online provides access to facsimile page images and full text of works published in the British Isles (plus some from North America) during the 18th century. The collection includes books, pamphlets, and broadsides. Users can search within texts keyword and download them as PDFs.
Nineteenth Century Collections Online (Gale) This link opens in a new window
Nineteenth Century Collections Online is a multi-year global digitization and publishing program focusing on primary source collections of the nineteenth century, with archives releasing incrementally. ** The database includes the collections Asia and the West: Diplomacy and Cultural Exchange; British Politics & Society; British Theatre, Music, and Literature: High and Popular Culture; Children's Literature and Childhood; Europe and Africa: Commerce, Christianity, Civilization, and Conquest; European Literature, 1790-1840: The Corvey Collection; Mapping the World: Maps and Travel Literature; Photography: The World Through the Lens; Religion, Society, Spirituality, and Reform; Science, Technology, and Medicine: 1780-1925, Parts I and II; And Women: Transnational Networks. **
Cambridge Companions Online This link opens in a new window
Cambridge Companions are lively, accessible introductions to major writers, artists, philosophers, topics and periods. All are collections of specially commissioned essays, shaped and introduced to appeal to student readers. Together the chapters add up to a systematic critical account of, for example Plato, Luther, Jane Austen, Tom Stoppard or Stravinsky, the French Novel or Jewish American Literature, and each title is supported by reference features such as a chronology and guide to further reading.

Other Subject-Specific Databases

In addition to looking at Mythology and FairyTales from a literary perspective, it is helpful to broaden your research and venture into other disciplines. Here is a brief list of databases that may enhance your research:

Anthropology Online This link opens in a new window
Anthropology Online brings together a wide range of written ethnographies, field notes, seminal texts, memoirs, and contemporary studies, covering human behavior the world over. Essential for study in the areas of politics, economics, history, psychology, environmental studies, religion, area studies, linguistics, and geography, the database will contain more than over 100,000 pages of full-text material at completion, including tens of thousands of pages of previously unpublished material from major archives.
eHRAF World Cultures This link opens in a new window
eHRAF World Cultures is a cross-cultural database that contains information on all aspects of cultural and social life. The annually-growing eHRAF database is unique in that the information is organized into cultures and ethnic groups and the full-text sources are subject-indexed at the paragraph level.
SocINDEX with Full Text This link opens in a new window
SocINDEX covers the sociology literature, encompassing all sub-disciplines and closely related areas of study. It indexes scholarly journals, books, monographs, and conference papers.
GenderWatch This link opens in a new window
GenderWatch indexes scholarly, radical, community, and independent publications from 1970 to present relevant to gender, women's, and LGBTQ studies. It provides information from both academic and grassroots perspectives on a wide range of gender-related topics, such as sexuality, family, religion, societal roles, race and ethnicity, feminism, masculinity, eating disorders, healthcare, and the workplace. Notable titles include Off Our Backs, Transgender Tapestry, Sister Namibia, and Out and About, among others.
Performing Arts Periodicals Database This link opens in a new window
Performing Arts Periodicals Database provides indexing and abstracts for more than 210 international journals in the performing arts dating from 1864 to the near present.
Music & Performing Arts This link opens in a new window
Music & Performing Arts provides an integrated search engine to the following online collections published by Alexander Street Press: African American Music Reference, American Song, Classical Music Library, Classical Music Reference Library, Classical Scores Library, Contemporary World Music, Dance in Video, The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online, Jazz Music Library, Opera in Video.
Education Source with ERIC This link opens in a new window
Education Source with ERIC provides access to research on all levels of education from early childhood to adult education. The content includes peer reviewed journal articles, ebooks, book reviews, dissertations, conference papers and policy reports on all topics in the realm of education.
Communication and Mass Media Complete This link opens in a new window
Communication and Mass Media Complete indexes and abstracts academic and trade journals in communications and mass media. Full-text is included for some titles. Conference proceedings are also available, including those of the International Communication Association.
PsycNET (with PsycINFO) This link opens in a new window
APA PsycNET is an integrated collection of databases from the American Psychological Association (APA), including the following: PsycINFO, PsycBOOKS, PsycTESTS, PsycTHERAPY, PsycARTICLES, and PsycEXTRA.

PsycINFO, the most popular database in PsycNET, is a bibliographic index covering core literature in the psychological and behavioral sciences and their related disciplines. PsycBOOKS includes online versions of the APA Handbooks in Psychology Series, as well as other ebooks and online encyclopedias published by APA. PsycTESTS is a source of structured information about psychological tests and measures as well as a repository for the full text of select instruments. PsycTHERAPY provides access to streaming psychotherapy demonstration videos.

Altogether, PsycNET provides information about and access to journal articles, books and ebooks, dissertations, conference presentations, tests and measures, videos, gray literature, and many other other publication types in the psychological, social, behavioral, and health sciences.
To search only a specific database (e.g., PsycINFO) within the PsycNET interface, use the "Select Databases" features at the top of the PsycNET landing page and check (or uncheck) the database(s) that apply.