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 AU Library Subject guides History of Ideas

Subject Guide for History of Ideas

In this subject guide, you will find a collection of resources concerning the area of study of history of ideas, including lists of databases, bibliographies, journals and podcasts. You are always welcome to contact your Liaison Librarian in case you need help navigating the subject guide, or if you have suggestions for additional information for the page.

Encyclopedias and Dictionaries – look up definitions here

A collection of Encyclopedias and dictionaries relevant to your subject.

See Encyclopedias and Dictionaries

  • Unesco Thesaurus
    The UNESCO Thesaurus is a controlled and structured list of terms used in subject analysis and retrieval of documents and publications in the fields of education, culture, natural sciences, social and human sciences, communication and information.
  • Britannica – Intellectual History
    Contains useful definitions for terminology within the fields of intellectual history and history of ideas.
  • Oxford Reference Online - Premium Collection
    Ebook database with a great collection of acknowledged reference works and dictionaries.

  • Dictionary of the History of Ideas
    Online access to the older reference work for history of ideas. Can often be a great place to start for an analysis related to the methodologies of history of ideas.

  • Lex.dk
    The Danish national encyclopedia. Contains more than 245.000 articles in Danish, written by subject experts.

  • Encyclopedia of Aesthetics
    Can be found both as part of Oxford Art Online and as a standalone e-reference work. It deals with the philosophy of art and art criticism in a very broad sense.

  • Encyclopedia of Bioethics
    It addresses topics such as ethics in healthcare professions, animal testing, population control, and the environment.

  • Brill’s Studies on Intellectual History
    A vast reference work that gathers research on all aspects of intellectual history. The work also includes the subseries Brill's Studies in Art, Art History and Intellectual History and Brill's Texts and Sources in Intellectual History.

  • Brill’s Encyclopedia of the Neo-Latin World  
    The reference work gathers research on all aspects of Neo-Latin's extensive influence from the Renaissance to modern times in overview articles. The reference work also includes 146 shorter topic entries arranged alphabetically.

Article Databases, Journals and Journal Databases

A collection of sources where you can get access to online articles in journals.

See Article Databases, Journals and Journal Databases

  • JSTOR
    Journal database with open full-text access to the leading academic journals within all subject areas. NB: It is usually not possible to access the most recent 3-5 volumes, but it is possible to access publications before that – some journals even go back to the 16th-18th centuries.

  • Project Muse
    Journal database with open full-text access to high quality journals within the humanities and social sciences. The database provides access to the most recent issues and sometimes to older issues (back issues) as well. Continuously updated.

  • Science Direct – History of Ideas
    Online journal and journal database focused on the area of history of ideas, complete with terminology definitions, overview of articles and recommended publications.

  • ATLA
    ATLA is the leading bibliography within theology, science of religion and ethics.

  • Journal of the History of Ideas
    Online journal with published materials from the 1940s until today. Full electronic access through the Royal Danish Library.

  • Modern Intellectual History
    Online journal, published four times a year. Focused on intellectual history from 1650 until today. Full electronic access through the Royal Danish Library.

  • History of European Ideas
    Online journal with partial open access.

  • L’HOMME – European Journal for Feminist History
    Online journal with full electronic access. Published from the 1990s to today.

Bibliographies

Find a selection of bibliographies within your subject area. 

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  • PhilPapers
    The largest online archive for philosophy. Index of books, articles and open access archives from other websites.
  • ATLA
    One of the leading bibliographies within science of religion and theology. Direct access to online texts. Index articles, essays and reviews.

Databases & special collections

As a student you have access to a number of databases and special collections.

See Databases and special collections

  • Demographics in Philosophy Project 
    Complete overview of more than 50 databases with information resources on gender, class, race, and diversity in philosophy.

  • Supressed Histories Archives
    An independent and non-profit database of 50,000 images and 100 visual presentations, articles, photo essays, books, and videos fleshing out the cultural heritages of womxn around the world. Is not associated with a university or research center.

  • Diversity Reading List in Philosophy
    Overview of relevant texts and research by LGBTQ and female philosophers. In line with the increasing focus on the lack of representation in philosophical research, as well as inequalities regarding gender and race, the list includes texts by authors who do not identify as cis-gender men or who have a non-white racial background.

  • The Open Commons of Phenomenology
    Full text works from phenomenological philosophers.

  • Project Gutenberg
    Project Gutenberg is an online library of more than 60.000 free eBooks. It is the world’s oldest online text archive. The archive is not monitored for errors in digitization. This means that mistakes can appear in the digitized versions of the literature.

  • Grundtvigs Værker
    An in-progress project to digitize a critical and commented version of Grundtvig’ body of work.

  • Søren Kirkegaards Skrifter
    A Special Collection at The Royal Danish Library. The complete works of Søren Kierkegaard.

  • Online Library of Liberty (OLL) - A collection of scholarly works about individual liberty and free markets
    Text collection of works regarding theories of the free market and individual freedoms. Contains a chronological collection of text from ancient times, to the contemporary.

  • The Internet Archive
    A source for primary literature from the 19th century.

News and media archives

A selection of sources where you can find Danish and international news.

See news and media archives

  • Infomedia (Only in Danish)
    Here you can find full text articles from Danish national, regional and local daily and weekly newspapers, specialist journals, magazines and news agencies. It covers the years from approximately 1990 and onwards – depending on when the specific journals and news sites started.

  • Mediestream
    Mediestream provides online access to Det Kgl. Biblioteks digital collections of Danish cultural heritage. So far, it covers newspapers, radio, television as well as commercials. Most of the content is in Danish, so relevant if you need to watch Danish documentaries, commercials or episodes of typical Danish drama series.

  • Factiva
    Database with access to newspapers from all over the world. Partial full text access.

EBooks

A range of EBooks that are relevant to your subject.

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  • InteLex Past Masters
    Ebook database that provides access to an array of classical works within philosophy and other areas of study. Contains works by Kant, Beauvoir, Decartes, Hegel, Kirkegaard etc.

  • Cambridge Companions Online
    Online-versions of the acknowledged Cambridge Companions series meant for students. Contains good introductions to classical and central authors, artists, philosophers, topics and periods.

  • Ebook Central
    Ebook database with thousands of e-books in all subject areas.

  • Oxford Scholarship Online
    Grants access to a wide selection of books from Oxford University Press. Only provides full-text access to the subjects that AU Library subscribes to: Classical Studies, Linguistics, Literature, Economics and Finance, Philosophy, Political Science, Law, Sociology, Religion, Biology, and Public Health and Epidemiology.

  • Oxford Reference Online - Premium Collection                    
    Ebook database with a great collection of acknowledged reference works and dictionaries.

Podcasts

A collection of resources where you can find podcasts. 

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Online courses

A collection of Courses that can be relevant for your subject area.

See Cources

  • Open Culture – The best free cultural & educational media on the web
    Tuition-free courses on philosophy from some of the world’s leading universities.

  • Reference Management
    It is important to refer correctly to the work of others when writing your own texts.

  • AU Studypedia
    AU Studypedia is an academic tool for you to use in regard to writing assignments, searching for literature, and other approaches related to your studying.

  • Copyright
    Do you know the rules regarding copyright, when you are studying and writing assignements? Figure out how and when you can use pictures, video-recordings or other materials here.

  • Information Seeking
    We have collected some relevant information about information retrieval and on how to quickly and efficiently find the materials you need.

  • Writing Your Academic Paper
    Get on top of your writing, make the most of your academic supervision, structure your assignment and define a precise problem statement.

AI tools for literature searching

AI search tools can supplement your other literature searches, for example at the beginning or the end of your search process. The tools are constantly evolving and often include both free and paid features. The AI tools search through content from open, scientific archives.

See AI search tools and open archives

AI search tools

  • Elicit
    Ask an academic question in ‘Quick search’ and get an answer based on selected sources from the open archive Semantic Scholar. The answer is supplemented by a table with key points from the sources. Requires a free user profile.
  • Perplexity
    Ask an academic question and get an answer based on selected sources. Choose ‘Academic’ and search within academic sources from the open archive Semantic Scholar and the PubMed database. Create a free user profile to make ‘Pro’ or ’Deep Research’ searches.
  • Ask.orkg.org
    Ask an academic question and get an answer based on selected sources from the open archive Core. The answer is supplemented by a table with key points from the sources.
  • Inciteful
    Enter an article title or DOI and get a network of articles that share citations with the entered article. The citation network is based on content from the open archives OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar, Crossref, and OpenCitations.
  • ResearchRabbit
    Enter one or more articles or DOIs and get a network of articles that share citations with the entered articles. The citation network is based on content from open archives such as OpenAlex and Semantic Scholar. Requires a free user profile.

Open archives

Open, scientific archives contain titles, abstracts, and sometimes the full text of a large number of articles, working papers, etc. The content in the open archives is not selected in the same way as in established scientific databases, so reflect critically on your search results. You can search the open archives either via an AI search tool or directly in the archive.

  • OpenAlex
    Retrieves data from sources such as PubMed, arXiv, DOAJ, Unpaywall, Zenodo, and ORCID. 
  • Semantic Scholar
    Retrieves data from sources such as PubMed, arXiv, and publishers like Sage, Springer, Wiley, and Taylor & Francis.
  • Lens
    Retrieves data from sources such as PubMed, OpenAlex, Crossref, and Unpaywall.
  • Core
    Collects metadata and, in many cases, the full text of scientific articles.
  • Crossref
    Collaborates with a wide range of publishers and institutions to provide open metadata, e.g., on articles, books, preprints, datasets, etc.

Libraries within your field of study

Liaison librarians

Karoline Liv Vildlyng

Information Specialist
M

P +4591356432
Revised 29.04.2025
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