Here are some useful ways of finding academic sources (books and academic articles) and other kinds of information online like newspaper articles, business information and legal cases, for your research.
- Google Scholar - searches for articles, theses, books, etc from academic publishers, professional organizations, university libraries and other websites. Much of the information it finds is only available if you have access to the relevant libraries or academic journals, but some links are available online.
- Chuo Library Opac Information System (CHOIS) in Japanese and English - to search the Chuo libraries.
The following online databases are only accessible at Chuo - access is not available to students from off campus. Most but not all materials you find through these databases is available in the 'full text version'. That means you can read and download the whole article, report or book. For some materials you will only be able to see a summary or abstract. You should, however, be able to order the complete article or book from the reference desk in the main library, though this may take some time.
- JSTOR - searches for mainly articles, but also some books, in English in the fields of Areas Studies, Arts, Business and Economics, History, Humanities, Law, Medicine and Allied Health, Science and Mathematics, and Social Sciences. You can access and download the full text version for everything in this database online.
- ProQuest - this is a database of English journal articles in the Humanities and Social Sciences, of newspaper articles (New York Times, Washington Post, Guardian (UK), Observer (UK), USA Today, Finacial Times (UK)), and of business data. You should be able to access and download fill text versions of everything you find through this database.
- LexisNexis Academic This is a database of newspapers from various countries (Japan, United States, United Kingdom, France, germany, Spain, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand), as well as legal cases (outside Japan) and business information.
- CiNii - This is the most useful database of academic articles written in Japanese.
- 電子ジャーナルタイトルリスト - you can search all the electroninc journals held by Chuo for the title of a journal (not the title of a single article) or you can choose a specific journal database (e.g. Cambridge Journals online) and search the journals in that database for specific articles. Not everything you find here can be accessed in the full text version or downloaded.
- LEX/DBインターネット - a database of Japanese legal cases.
You can find other databases on the full list of online databases.
You can ask at the reference desk in the main library if you have questions or difficulties with using the online databases.
If you have advice or comments about using the databases above, or about other ways to search for for information using the Chuo online databases, please leave a comment below.