Sociology Research

Finding Articles

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These are the most useful resources for finding sociology journal articles:

Academic Search Premier via EBSCOhost
Academic Search Complete covers the core sociology journals and has some full-text articles.

ProQuest Central
This database contains about 30 sociology titles and has some full text.

SAGE Journals Online
SAGE Journals Online provides full-text access to peer-reviewed journals in the social sciences and other subject areas.

PsycINFO via EBSCOhost
This database has excellent coverage of social psychology.

ERIC via EBSCOhost
Try this database for articles and documents on the sociology of education.

Social Work Abstracts via EBSCOhost
If your topic deals with social work, then you should try this database.

Finding Books

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To locate books owned by Niagara University Library, use the Library Catalog.

The ebrary electronic book collection offers full-text access to many titles.

If you want to search for books owned by other libraries, too, then try searching WorldCat, a catalog that contains references to more than 57 million items owned by 9,000 libraries worldwide. Don't worry - if you need a book owned by another library, you can request it. To learn how, jump to the section called Obtaining Materials NU Library Does Not Own.

Tip: One thing to note when searching for books is that they are usually not as specific as articles, so construct your search in a more general way than you would for an article search. So, let's say that you were doing research on how single mothers survive financially. Your best bet would be to search for books about the broader subject of single mothers and pick out book titles that may look relevant.

Finding Films

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There are three places to look for educational video and documentaries owned by Niagara University Library.

  1. The Educational DVD Collection is located on the first floor of the Library.
    This collection exceeds 1,500 titles and can be viewed and searched via the NU Library Catalog.
  2. Films on Demand. More than 6,000 video titles are available for streaming anywhere on campus.
  3. The web is a good source of video as well. Refseek links to some of the best sites: http://www.refseek.com/directory/educational_videos.html

Finding Facts, Statistics and Web Sites

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The Library has some reference books in the field of sociology. For example:

  • Dictionary of Sociology (HM17 .C66 1998)
  • Encyclopedia of Social Theory (HM425 .E47 2005)
  • Encyclopedia of Sociology (HM425 .E5 2000)

These titles are located in the Reference Collection on the first floor.

The World Wide Web is a great place to find statistical data. Try these sites:

If you are looking for specific information on the World Wide Web, visit a search engine like Google and type your keywords in.

If you would like to browse a directory of sociology web sites, try this one:

  • Internet Resources for Sociologists

Obtaining Materials NU Library Does Not Own

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If you need an article or a book that NU Library does not own, you can make use of Interlibrary Loan to obtain it.

Tip: In a hurry? If the article or book you need is owned by another library in Western New York, you can visit that library and use their resources on site (view a list of Western New York library web sites).

Please note: If you wish to borrow a book from another Western New York library, you can get an InfoPass card at the Reference Desk.

Citing Your Sources

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Format your paper and cite your sources according to the:

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (Ref BF76.7 .P83 2010)

This manual is the definitive source. The official manual is not online, though APA does provide some guidance on how to cite web sites and electronic databases:

http://www.apastyle.org/apa-style-help.aspx

You may also want to check out some style tips from APA:

http://www.apastyle.org/learn/faqs/index.aspx

Here is a guide from Long Island University:

http://www2.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citapa.htm

Try a Google search of "APA Style" to see other guides. You will find many sites listed that provide examples of APA Style. The first few that are listed tend to be reliable, but you will have to be careful.

Tip: Please talk to your professor if you have questions about how to cite your sources.