InfoGuides: SOCW 6321: Critical Social Work: Articles

Scholarly and Popular Sources

What's the difference between a scholarly source and a popular source?

Discover

Scholarly Articles

What is this searching?

Databases & Scholarly Articles

Library Databases may contain:

scholarly articles
newspapers or magazines
images or historical documents
full-text books

Search Tips

Think of keywords that relate to your topic to begin your reasearch.

Boolean Operators are the words AND, OR and NOT that can be used to combine keywords in ways to narrow your search results.

Use Boolean Modifiers to further define and narrow your search.

Databases

American Psychological Association website This link opens in a new window
Offers assistance citing electronic publications using the American Psychological Association (APA) editorial style. From the publisher of the complete guide, the 'Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association'. Also has information on APA style.
Format: Website, Coverage: Current, Truncation and Wildcard: None and None, Search Tips: No searching available. Full-text of the 'Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association' is not online, but partial information to citing print resour
EBSCO Search This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Not one database but over a dozen different databases on the EBSCOhost platform, covering a wide array of topics and sources, combined here to search them all at once.

Great for business, economics, nursing, health sciences, communication, education, literary studies, music, psychology, public administration, social work, and sports & exercise sciences.

Not as great for history, natural and applied sciences, the arts, philosophy, sociology, or magazines/newspapers.
Currently searches these databases:
Business Source Ultimate, CINAHL Complete, Civil War Primary Source Documents, Communication Source, Education Source, Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts, Mental Measurements Yearbook with Tests in Print, MLA Directory of Periodicals, MLA International Bibliography, Music Index, APA PsycArticles, APA PsycInfo, Public Administration Abstracts, Social Work Abstracts, SPORTDiscus with Full Text, eBook Collection (EBSCOhost)
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
** Expanded access continues as we work to implement a new contract for JSTOR's new all-access model, which will provide access to all archival journals and primary source content. **

Back volumes for 2,890 journals from the very first issue but usually excluding the most current 2-5 years, though almost 100 with coverage through the most recent issue. General subject areas include art & architecture, Asian studies, botany, ecology, economics, education, finance, history, language & literature, mathematics, music, philosophy, political science, population studies, sociology and statistics.
Format: Majority full-text; some additional full-text via link resolver, Coverage: Dates vary with beginning date of journal., Truncation and Wildcard: + and ----, Search Tips: Boolean commands are supported. Use quotation marks to search keywords as a phrase.
MEDLINE (FirstSearch) This link opens in a new window
International coverage of all areas of medicine (clinical and experimental), dentistry, nursing, health services administration, etc. Searches 12 million records. Interface is through OCLC, and resembles that for ArticleFirst and Worldcat.
Coverage: Varies, begins as early as 1965, Truncation and Wildcard: * (any ending of stem) and # (any number of characters), Search Tips: To search singular and plural terms simultaneously, use a + at the end of the singular form. The wildcard replacement for only a single character is ?, which can be repeated up to 9 times. Limit by field searched, publication types. Areas of medicine are labeled Record type. Does not allow age, gender or species search. Can limit to full-text.
Mental Measurements Yearbook with Tests in Print This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive guide to over 2,700 contemporary testing instruments (and over 7,000 reaching back to 1938) within such diverse areas as psychology, education, business, and leadership.
Truncation and Wildcard: * and ?, Search Tips: Use quotation marks to phrase search. Allows Boolean AND, OR and NOT searching.
APA PsycInfo This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Behavioral sciences database containing full-text and abstracts for journals, books, and book chapters. International coverage for psychology, medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education and pharmacology. Index is created by the American Psychological Association. More than 1.8 million entries. Entries are searchable by language, format, special population groups, classification codes, content type, intended audience, and special features.
Format: Citations; some full-text via link resolver, Coverage: 1887-present, Truncation and Wildcard: * and *, Search Tips: Use quotation marks to phrase search. Allows Boolean AND, OR and NOT searching. May limit to full-text, scholarly journals, date, length, publication name and type. HELP link on each screen, which includes Citation information. Can print, save, or email results. Some full-text publications may have the most current 3-12 months in abstract only, due to publisher restrictions.
PubMed This link opens in a new window
More than 24 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites.
Sage Journals Online This link opens in a new window
Full-text from 860+ scholarly journals, with excellent coverage for criminology, psychology, sociology, health sciences and the humanities. Numerous journals also cover education, general and international business, and management.
Format: Full-text, Coverage: 1999-present, Truncation and Wildcard: * and *, Search Tips: Search results may include material earlier than our subscription. DO NOT pay for articles: use our Interlibrary Loan
ScienceDirect This link opens in a new window
Broad science coverage, emphasizing life sciences, health sciences, engineering, earth sciences, agriculture, and pharmacology. Full text from over 3800 journals and chapters from over 5300 books. Also includes business, management and accounting; economics, econometrics and finance, and social science.
Format: Full-text, Coverage: Varies by title, most 1990-present, Truncation and Wildcard: ! and *, Search Tips: Default search assumes entered term is a phrase. Can search for terms in abstract/title/keywords, full-text , author, journal title, etc. Use singular for terms that form regular plurals. For irregular plurals, combine both terms with OR. Greek letters are spelled out in English. Super and subscripts appear inline. Browsable help lists. Journal list.
Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Simultaneously search the most important journals in the social sciences, physical sciences, mathematics, the humanities, and visual and performing arts. Includes 'high impact' scholarly sources. Search by author, topic, affiliation, etc., or follow links to cited sources. Create an individualized sign-in to save results, set up search alerts, and gain access to citation management with the My EndNote Web service. Includes Arts & Humanities Citation Index (AHCI), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Science Citation Index (SCI).
Format: Citations; some full-text via link resolver, Coverage: 1970-present, Truncation and Wildcard: * and * for (any), ? for (1), $ for (0 or 1), Search Tips: Default search is for terms in the order they are entered, use quotation marks for a phrase. Search options include author, title, keyword, and subject. Author first name is initials only. Supports logical connectors AND, OR, NOT, and SAME. Can limit to one or two of the included indexes.