Sociology Research Tools
Course-Specific Guides |Indexes/Databases |Reference Tools | E-Journals | Surveys/Polls/Statistics | Citing/Organizing Your Research
Course-Specific Guides
- Spring 2008
- Sociology 12: Self and Society
- Sociology 16: Social Research
- Sociology 21: Sociology of Family
- Fall 2007
- Sociology 22: Sociology of the Life Course
- Previous Semesters' Course-Guides for Sociology
Indexes and Databases - Finding articles and more
- Sociological Abstracts Key database in the field of sociology.
- ASSIA: Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts Social services, psychology, sociology, race relations etc.
- Social Services Abstracts Current research on social work, human services, and related areas.
- Academic Search Premier and Academic OneFile Many fulltext articles on a wide range of topics including sociology.
- America: History & Life Not just history -- good coverage of contemporary American culture, ethnic studies.
- ERIC (Educational Resources Info. Center) Research documents, journal articles, technical reports, etc. related to education.
- Contemporary Women's Issues Indexes journals, newsletters, research reports from non-profit groups, government and international agencies; GenderWatch Full text articles that focus on the impact of gender across a broad spectrum of subject areas; and Women's Studies International
- Ethnic NewsWatch Fulltext newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press.
- IBSS: International Bibliography of Social Sciences Interdisciplinary, academic, international.
- Project Cork Bibliographic database of over 69,000 items on substance abuse.
- Alternative Press Index and Left Index -- because there's more than one point of view.
- More databases -- because sociology intersects with many other disciplines (psychology and anthropology, for example.)
Specialized Databases:
- Social Science Citation Index (via Web of Science) (on campus only) Have a key book or article? Want to see who has cited it?
- World Cat -- Search for books in thousands of libraries -- request those not in 5C through InterLibrary Loan
- Dissertation Abstracts -- when you're searching for a very narrow or recent topic. Most are not available through Interlibrary Loan, but we can purchase a dissertation for you (caution -- this takes time!)
Reference
- Oxford Reference Online: Political and Social Sciences (includes Dictionary of Sociology and the Dictionary of Statistics)
- Library of Congress Classification: H - Sociology This is the list of call numbers assigned to different topics within sociology. The complete list is available from the Library of Congress.
- Style Manuals How to cite that article; and EndNote software to format them.
Electronic Journals
JSTOR provides fulltext access to backfiles (not current issues) of several sociology journals, including: Annual Review of Sociology. Current issues available through: Annual Review of Sociology. WWW VL: Sociology Electronic Journals and Newsletters Some require a paid subscription, some do not.
Surveys, Polls, and Statistics
LexisNexis Academic Universe -- gigantic fulltext database of newspapers, great source for locating surveys.
U.S. Census Bureau is the major producer of data about American families, poverty, race, occupation, education, etc.
Statistical Resources on the Web Excellent index to U.S. statistics.
iPoll database -- US public opinion data from the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, which includes Gallup, Washington Post, and many others. You need to login with your AC email during the trial period.
CIS Statistical Universe Index to over 100,000 U.S., International, and Intergovernmental statistical publications. Some are also available fulltext.
Pew Research Center, and specific subsections such as Pew Hispanic Center
Citing and Organizing Your Research
There are a variety of ways to cite your sources -- the style manuals web page lists some of them. The campus also has a site wide license of a powerful bibliographic management softward called EndNote. It's available for free to the AC community from the K:drive and Susan Kimball (sjkimball) provides assistance. In addition, there is a very cool open source tool called Zotero (Firefox only, not Internet Explorer.) It's free on the web, and helps you organize and manage your research, as well as citing sources.
Send comments to Susan Edwards (seedwards)