INSTRUCTIONAL TUTORIAL: IMPROVING YOUR SEARCH STRATEGY
After you have done some background reading and formulated your research question it is time to begin searching in some of our databases for articles. This tutorial help you learn how to select keywords and improve your search strategy.
Databases for Finding Articles by Discipline
Search Databases
To find articles in a specific subject area, here is a list of our databases by subject:
General and Subject Specific Article Databases
The first four Databases listed below are general all purpose databases that can be useful as a starting point for any Social work research. Remember to click on the advanced search screen to enter your each key concepts on separate line.
Social work is interdisciplinary in nature so using an all purpose databases will help you determine where literature on your topic is coming from e.g., Education journals, Psychology journals, Criminology journals, etc.
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
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Provides more than 7,000 multidisciplinary full-text periodicals, nearly 6,000 peer-reviewed journals, and more than 11,600 monographs, reports, conference proceedings, dating back as far as 1887. - Research Library This link opens in a new window
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Covers a broad range of subject areas, providing access to more than 4,000 periodicals from 1971 to present. - Proquest Congressional This link opens in a new window
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Covers a broad range of Congressional information including House and Senate documents, committee reports, bill tracking and bill texts and campaign finance information. Provides the full text of the National Journal, as well as a searchable CIS/Index, the primary indexing & abstracting source for legislative information since 1970. The Statutes at Large includes both full text and synopses of public laws back to 1789. - Academic OneFile This link opens in a new window
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A multiple subject database covering the physical sciences, technology, medicine, social sciences, the arts, theology, literature and more, dating as far back as 1980. It includes full text scholarly, trade, and general-interest journals, newspapers, newswire services and magazines, as well as podcasts, transcripts and medical videos. - LexisNexis Academic
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Now known as Nexis Uni - Social Sciences Full Text This link opens in a new window
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Includes citations and abstracts, 1983 to the present, with some full text articles, 1995 to the present, in applied and theoretical aspects of sociology, anthropology, geography, economics, political science and law. - SocINDEX with Full Text This link opens in a new window
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A comprehensive research database covering a broad range of topics in the social sciences, with full text journal articles dating as far back as 1895. Full text coverage of books, monographs, and conference papers is also included. - Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new window
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Provides bibliographic information from 1963 - present in the international literature in sociology and related disciplines. Coverage includes journal articles, book reviews, books, and book chapters.
Connect to Article
Connect to Article--Article Linker
Results from a database search are often in the form of a list of citations. Article Linker is a tool to help you retrieve full text journal or newspaper articles, connecting you to the whole article if the journal or newspaper is in an AU database. To begin, look for the icon in your results page
Since our collection includes databases from varying vendors, not all databases connect in the same manner.
- In some cases the system will connect directly to the article.
- Or, the page may contain a link to the article.
- Or, you may have to enter the Journal title into Alicat and then find the needed Volume & Issue
Review the following guides to familiarize yourself with Article Linker. If an article is not available in any AU database online then you may order the article through Interlibrary Loan. Fill out and submit your request for a journal article using the online form. The article will then be sent to your Adelphi email account in a few days.