Sociology 1001 Library Research Guide
- This section of the Sociology 1001 Library Guide explains how to locate journal articles when you only have a topic or subject. A specific journal may contain thousands of articles. The Library catalogue does not tell you in which journals articles on a particular topic are published.
Electronic databases
Electronic databases | Sociology Databases | Finding Electronic databases | Access from Home |
Electronic Databases
Where only a topic or research area is known you will need to consult an indexing or abstracting service. Most indexes to journal articles held in the Library, are available in electronic form. They are refered to as Electronic databases. Databases:
- index and in many cases abstract (summarise) the content of journals within specific or broad subject areas. Some databases also reference theses, book reviews, conference proceedings & collections of essays.
- are either specific to a subject area or cover a range of academic disciplines. For example Sociofile indexes and abstracts the world's literature on Sociology and Expanded Academic Index broadly covers the Social Sciences and Humanities.
- allow researchers to identify and locate key journals in their subject areas.
- are compiled by commercial or professional organisations and index world, regional or national literature on a particular subject.
- cover the world or Australia's literature on a subject. References retrieved when searching a bibliographic database are not necessarily held in the Library.
- will frequently allow you to link to the library catalogue to check holdings
- in some cases the full-text of articles may be available (Expanded Academic Index) in others a citation and abstract (Sociofile). This means they provide bibliographic information for an article not the full article. These databases are referred to as bibliographic databases.
If a database does not provide links to catalogue holdings you will need to check the library catalogue for holdings.
Remember an Electronic database indexes Australia's or the world's literature on a particular subject. They do not index Fisher Library's holdings on a topic. Check the Library catalogue or the database catalogue weblink for holdings. Locate holdings in other Libraries by searching;
- Serials in Australian Libraries Database or
- Another Library Catalogue such as the State Library of New South Wales, University of New South Wales or Macquarie University.
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Databases for Sociological Research
A list databases available for Sociological research is available from the Libraries Database Page
Useful databases foy the current Sociology 1001 essay include
Family & Society Plus 1980-
Abstracts produced by the Australian Institute of Family Studies. Family indexes
and abstracts to material on many issues pertaining to Australian Families.
References in this database deal broadly with issues influencing social change in
Australian Society. Social policy material is covered comprehensively and
includes literature produced by organisations with a commitment to social
justice.
APAIS
Covers Current affairs, economics,
humanities, law, literature, politics and social sciences. Provides brief
citations of journal articles, significant articles in newspapers, conference
papers and essays within collections.
Sociological Abstracts
Bibliographic references and abstracts to literature of
sociology and the related social sciences including
the topics aging, AIDS, alcohol abuse, anthropology,
cities, communications, counselling, crime, culture,
death, demography, drugs, and education. Source
material from over 30 languages
Expanded Academic Index ASAP
General academic periodical
index for research in the social sciences and humanities. This database also
includes the full-text of articles from over 520 journals indexed in the last 3-4
years. Full-text titles of interest to sociologists include American journal of
Sociology; Annual Review of Sociology; The Canadian Review of Sociology and
Anthropology; Gender & Society; Hecate; journal of Comparative Family Studies;
Journal of research in Crime and delinquency; Journal of Social Issues; Sex
Roles; Signs; Sociological Quarterly; Sociological Review; Urban Studies; WomenÕs
Studies
PAIS:Public Affirs Information Service
Bibliographic index to journal articles, government documents, reports, books, year books in English, and other languages on contemporary social, economic and political issues, social sciences, business, and public policy. This database is particularly useful for research in comparative social policy
Web of Science: Social Sciences Citation Index
The Social Sciences Citation Index is a
multidisciplinary database, with searchable author
abstracts,covering the journal literature of the social
sciences. It indexes more than 1,725 journals
spanning 50 disciplines, as well as covering
individually selected, relevant items from over 3,300
of the world's leading scientific and technical
journals. No userid and password available. This database is extremely useful for locating the work of author who havecited or referred a key article you have located.
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Finding Electronic databases
The Library Databases and Electronic Resources Page lists available databases alphabetically and by subject. This page also includes information on other electronic resources such as examination papers and ejournal collections.
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Access
The databases can be accessed from the Library or Campus Computer Access Centres. Information for remote access (i.e. from home) to databases is available from the University of Sydney Library Off Campus Access Page If the University of Sydney is your Internet Service Provider you will not require passwords or need to configure your browser for off campus access. Information on setting up the University of Sydney as Internet Service Provider (ISP) is available from Computer Access Centres on the campus or the Information Technology Services Website.
Researching Sociology: A Guide to database searching
The Researching Sociology Guide provides additional information on using databases. This document is only be available in Word Format. The document will not not be available from the Library Information Desk. However, you may download it yourself from a home computer or from computers in the Library or any of University of Sydney Computer Access Centres.
Download Researching Sociology
Download Database Helpsheet -includes instructions for downloading, printing and saving search results