Skip to Main Content

SOC2230: Introduction to Human Services: Finding Articles

Finding Articles about Social Work

Pixabay: LN_Photoart, https://pixabay.com/photos/viewing-machine-tower-viewer-2127704/Finding Articles About Social Work

Research is about exploring new ideas and seeing what others have done before you.  As you develop your interventions, you'll need to see how other scholars have approached your topic, and what they've learned.  This will give you a solid foundation on which to build your own research!

When conducting academic research, you should try to find as much information about previous research on your topic, as possible. 

One of the best places to look for articles is in the Library’s Databases. Databases range from general to subject-specific, can be used from off campus, and many offer full-text access to articles.  If your topic covers more than one subject (Social Sciences and Education, etc.) you'll want to search more than one database to get the full picture.

Visit our main Databases page, for a full list of resources available to you!

Searching

Search All isn't always the best place to go when doing research.  In fact, some our our databases actually offer more control over you searching!  

The following databases are good starting points for your Sociology research.  The contents of each are different (with some overlap) so it's always a good idea to check in multiple databases to ensure that you find all relevant information.

If you topic touches on another subject, such as education, health, or gender studies, be sure to look in those databases as well (see below).

Social Work Related Databases

General Knowledge Databases

Having trouble finding articles in the subject-specific databases?  Try one of our general knowledge resources.

Just be careful that the articles you find are relevant to social work and your topic!

Scholarly v. Popular

When conducting research, you will usually be asked to find Scholarly Articles, or artices from a Scholarly Journal, rather than popular sources (like magazines and newspapers).

Not sure what the difference is between scholarly and popular?  Check out this short tutorial: Scholarly v. Popular

Is It Scholarly?

How can you tell if you've found a scholarly article?

Some of our databases allow you to limit your results to Scholarly or Peer-Reviewed (possibly Refereed) articles.  In some cases, this isn’t so clear.  You can either check with your professor or a librarian, or you can search for the journal name in Ulrichsweb (from on campus).