Library: M.A. in Liberal Studies (MALS): General

Liberal Studies Research Databases

Click on a database name to search. Since MALS is multidisciplinary, these databases search across multiple subject areas. For more specific results within a discipline, click on a related guide on the left to see recommended databases for the subject area that you are researching.

Academic Search Ultimate This link opens in a new window The world's largest academic, multi-disciplinary database with full text journals, newspapers, magazines, reports, eBooks and videos. Meets the needs of scholars in virtually every discipline.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window Updated regularly. Offers a high-quality, interdisciplinary archive to support scholarship and teaching. Includes archives of over 1,000 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.
SAGE Journals Online This link opens in a new window An interdisciplinary database that contains over 1,000 full text, online journals in the fields of business, education, health, the humanities, law enforcement, criminology, and other social sciences. Several of these journals are the most authoritative and influential in their fields. Access from 1999-present.
ProQuest Central This link opens in a new window Search ALL ProQuest databases at once. Covering more than 160 subject areas, ProQuest Central is the largest aggregated database and contains a diversified mix of content including scholarly journals, trade publications, magazines, books, newspapers, reports and videos. Encompasses business, science & technology, health, social sciences, arts & humanities, and news.
SocINDEX with Full Text This link opens in a new window Comprehensive coverage of sociology, its scope includes subjects such as abortion, criminology & criminal justice, demography, ethnic & racial studies, gender studies, marriage & family, religion, rural & urban sociology, social psychology, and social work, to name a few. Contains full text for more than 890 journals, 850 books, and over 16,800 conference papers.
Google Scholar This link opens in a new window Uses the popular Google search engine to search for scholarly sources. Accessing Google Scholar from within the Library will directly link you to items we subscribe to.

Multidisciplinary eBook databases:

eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new window Multidisciplinary eBooks representing a broad range of subjects.
Ebook Central (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window eBooks on a range of subjects such as business, information technology, education, engineering, health, history, humanities, life & physical sciences, and social and behavioral sciences.

Learn more about finding and downloading eBooks:

Click on a database name to search:

Films On Demand: Master Academic Package This link opens in a new window Full-length streaming videos in the humanities, social sciences, business, health, medicine, sciences, and mathematics fields.
Alexander Street: Academic Video Online‎ This link opens in a new window A large multidisciplinary collection of streaming videos. Includes documentaries, interviews, performances, news programs and newsreels, field recordings, commercials, raw footage, award-winning films, including Academy® and Emmy® winners, newly released films, and archival material previously unavailable.
ImageQuest (Britannica) This link opens in a new window Nearly 3 million rights-cleared images from more than 50 collections including Getty Images, the National Portrait Gallery of London, and the National Geographic Society.
Credo Reference This link opens in a new window Specialized reference eBooks for background information on all subjects, including audio, video, and image results.

Click on a database name to search:

Credo Reference This link opens in a new window Specialized reference eBooks for background information on all subjects, including audio, video, and image results.
Britannica Academic This link opens in a new window The largest, most authoritative encyclopedia in the world, this database contains articles, maps, images, videos, and yearbooks from 1993 to present. Use it instead of Wikipedia for your research!
Gale eBooks This link opens in a new window More than 50 reference eBooks in business, communications, history, law, literature, medicine, nation & world, science, and technology.

OneSearch

Find articles, eBooks, etc.

Using Google Scholar: Finding Peer Reviewed Resources (Transcript)

Selected eBooks

MALS Theses

Read theses from Excelsior students who have completed the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS) program:

Browse for MALS theses by year

Signature pages for all theses are on record in Excelsior's MALS office.

Find tips about writing a thesis on the Library's Writing Resources page. (Click the How to Write a... section.)

How to use this guide

This guide is designed to help you with your research, introducing a range of Liberal Studies resources available to you. The Liberal Studies Research Databases box lists databases recommended in your subject area that you can search to find articles, eBooks, etc.

Related Guides

Business
by Brent Swearingen Last Updated Mar 10, 2025 863 views this year
Communications
by Melissa Chim Last Updated Mar 10, 2025 54 views this year
Economics
by Melissa Chim Last Updated Mar 10, 2025 26 views this year
English
by Melissa Chim Last Updated Mar 10, 2025 4 views this year
History
by Melissa Chim Last Updated Mar 10, 2025 123 views this year
Philosophy
by Melissa Chim Last Updated Mar 10, 2025 2 views this year
Political Science
by Melissa Chim Last Updated Mar 10, 2025 31 views this year
Primary Sources
by The Library Last Updated Feb 13, 2025 110 views this year
Psychology
by Melissa Chim Last Updated Mar 10, 2025 468 views this year

Additional Excelsior University Resources

Online Writing Lab (Excelsior OWL) Self-paced lessons for becoming a better writer.
Career Readiness Center Excelsior's Career Readiness Center offers numerous resources for every phase of your job search including resume writing, interviewing, networking, and more. Some of the resources require you to create a free account to use them.