Sociology Literature Reviews
Databases
- SocINDEX with Full Text (EBSCO)
Covers a broad range of studies, including gender studies, criminal justice, social psychology, religion, racial studies, and social work.
Contents: Abstracts and full-text of scholarly journals, books, and conference papers.
- EBSCO Research Library
Search across all of our EBSCO subscriptions for full-text articles and abstracts in almost every discipline.
- ProQuest Research Library (ProQuest)
This custom link allows patrons to search across several ProQuest databases including APA PsycInfo, Healthcare Administration Database, Education database, Psychology Database, Research Library, and Social Science Database.
Contents: Full-text articles, abstracts, and ebooks.
- Social Science Research Network (SSRN)
Contents: Abstracts and some full-text of scholarly working papers and forthcoming papers in the social sciences.
- ScienceDirect
Subjects covered include biology, chemistry, computer science, economics, environmental science, mathematics, medicine, neuroscience, nursing, physics, education, and psychology.
Contents: Abstracts and full-text articles from scientific, technological, and medical scholarly journals and reference books published by Elsevier.
Other Databases and Sites
- Google Scholar
This search engine includes peer-reviewed online academic journals, books, conference proceedings, theses, technical reports, court opinions, and other scholarly literature.
Contents: Citations and some full-text.
Note: Few results in Google Scholar link directly to full-text.
- Academia.eduA networking website for academics. The website allows its users to create a profile, upload their work, and explore areas of interest
Evaluating Resources
- Scholarly: sources that you discuss in your literature review have to be scholarly--articles from peer-reviewed journals, books from university (or other well-respected) publishers, etc. (Email me if you aren't sure about a source!)
- Date of publication: old doesn't mean 'bad', necessarily, but you have to look at the date and think critically about how that might affect the author's treatment of the topic.
- Relevance: this might be the most important factor. Is the source truly relevant to your topic, or is it tangential?
- When thinking about relevance, think about how the persuasiveness of the argument and the value it adds to the body of literature
- Author: who wrote the source? What are their credentials? Have they published other information on the same topic?
