The MIT Libraries have provided online access to a small group of bibliographic databases for some time, originally through the FirstSearch service. When searching databases that are limited to bibliographic citations or abstracts, getting the articles themselves can be a bit complicated. Many of the database services offer their own fee-based document delivery services. Reference librarians at any of the libraries can help you in getting copies of articles or other materials for which you locate citation information using any of MIT's databases. The UNIVerse service provides access to a wealth of news, business, and legal resources.
Searches yield the actual text of relevant articles.
The Web of Science is a premiere source of information on scholarly publications in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities. In addition to indexing and abstracting publications, the Web of Science includes details on what sources are cited in each article. You may take a known, relevant paper or work and find other more recent papers that cite it. No other index does this.