Research Guides: Philosophy: Recommended Resources

Handbooks, Encyclopedias, Databases

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
This is the premier (and free) online-only philosophy encyclopedia with an impressive group of over 100 subject editors from around the world.
Philosophy Handbooks & Companions
Handbooks and Companions are authoritative guides to topics in philosophy. They are collections of essays written by scholars in the field, offering accessible introductions to major writers, philosophers, topics, and periods. They also provide bibliographies of important scholarship.
PhilPapers: Online Research in Philosophy (Database)
PhilPapers is a comprehensive index and bibliography of works in philosophy. Some features require that you sign in first, but creating an account is easy and free. Over 50,000 people have registered.
Philosopher's Index (Database)
Similar to PhilPapers, this index on the EbscoHost platform provides citations and abstracts of journal articles and other resources in philosophy and the philosophical aspects of other disciplines.
Atla Religion Database with AtlaSerials PLUS
Search Atla Religion Database in addition to PhilPapers and Philosopher's Index to include more biblical-theological journal articles working at the intersection of theology and philosophy.
WorldCat (FirstSearch)
Best single search of the book literature by and about a person or subject.
ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global Full Text
Dissertations and theses from around the world, spanning from 1743 to the present day and offering full text for graduate works added since 1997, along with selected full text for works written prior to 1997. It contains a significant amount of new international dissertations and theses both in citations and in full text.

About Google Books and Google Scholar...

In contrast to most library catalogs and databases, Google Scholar and Google Books run your search terms across the full text of the journals and books that they index. This enhances the relevance of their results.
Google Books advanced search (available under the Hamburger Menu in the upper left of the window) allows you to limit to a person's name as the author or as the subject of the work.
Google Scholar's "Cited by" feature helps you to track a scholarly conversation forward and is an indicator of the impact or importance of a work. A high cited-by number (relative to the date it was published) makes it more likely that you should engage with it.