LibGuides: Social Work and Sociology: SOWK 4040

Electronic Resources

Find these electronic resources on the library webpage at http://library.nsula.edu/database-directory/

SocINDEX This link opens in a new window
Look here for FULL TEXT articles in Sociology and related fields
Social Work Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Scholarly database for the social work field. Now includes full text or links for many articles.
Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Broad, general periodical database that includes over 13,000 scholarly and popular journals. Many articles are full-text.

ERIC - Education Resources Information Clearinghouse
Scholarly resource for research in education and its related fields. Includes both journals and documents, some in full text.

PsycINFO This link opens in a new window
Resource for abstracts of scholarly journal articles, book chapters, books, and dissertations, is the largest resource devoted to peer-reviewed literature in behavioral science and mental health. It contains over 3 million records and summaries dating as far back as the 1600s. Journal coverage, which spans from the 1800s to the present, includes international material selected from around 2,500 periodicals in dozens of languages.
Mental Measurements Yearbook This link opens in a new window
Produced by the Buros Center for Testing at the University of Nebraska, this database provides a comprehensive guide to contemporary testing instruments. Designed for an audience ranging from novice test consumers to experienced professionals, the series contains information for evaluating test products in psychology, education, business and leadership.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
JSTOR - both multidisciplinary and discipline-specific collections .Areas such as Arts and Sciences, Business, Ecology and Botany, General Science, Language and Literature, Mathematics and Statistics, and Music.

Interlibrary Loan
Use ILL to get items that you need that we don't own or own access to. Remember, everything is full text SOMEWHERE. If it isn't in one database, it might be in another. If it isn't in any of our databases, we might have it in print. If we don't have it, we can get it for you from another library - fast and for free!

Social Work Research

Introduction

"The purpose of this proposal is to conduct research to answer the question"…(insert your research question here)
Discuss why this topic is important for social workers to know about (answer the so what? question). This topic is important because…
Give general statistics about the scope of the problem. How many people does this issue affect? For example, In the US each year over 1 million people are hospitalized for bipolar disorder (or something to that effect).

Review of Literature

Intro and lit review are written in the form of a unified essay and not just as a litany of annotations from the annotated bibliography.
Good literature reviews reveal the work that has been done previously on the topic of the research question.
Good literature reviews discuss opposing views as found in the research.
Good literature reviews discuss the theory being tested.
Emphasize the finding of previous research that has been completed on the topic.
Critique the previous research if you see a flaw.
Point out trends and themes in the literature that you found.
Point out gaps in the literature.
Point out how your study question differs from previous research.
If there is no literature on your topic, point out literature that is peripheral to your topic.
Use quotations sparingly or not at all. Paraphrase but do not plagiarize. CITE EVERYTHING.
Use the APA Style Manual to guide your writing and citations.