Scoping your Research
Social work searching can be quite interdisciplinary - cross searching in databases related to medicine, psychology, nursing, and education is not uncommon.
Searching for journal articles, theses/dissertations, conference proceedings, reports, etc.:
- Try reviewing subject/research guides in your appropriate areas to see which databases are suggested.
- Review the UBC Library list of databases
- Can narrow by subject area, although not always comprehensive
- Consult with your professor and/or supervisor(s) for suggested resources
- Locating theses/dissertations can help to identify past graduate research on similar topics.
Searching for books and items not found in databases:
- Use Summon, the general library search tool, to look for print and e-books available through the library
- Summon can also be used to find related materials in databases that may have been outside of your original plan.
Databases
Social Work
- Social Work Abstracts This link opens in a new windowIndexes current research on social work, human services, and related areas, including social welfare, social policy, community development.
- Social Services Abstracts This link opens in a new windowSocial Services Abstracts indexes current research focused on social work, human services, and related areas.
Psychology
- PsycInfo (includes full text from PsycArticles) This link opens in a new windowCovers psychology and the psychological aspects of various other disciplines. Contains citations and summaries of journal articles, book chapters, books, and technical reports, as well as citations to dissertations.
Medicine
- MEDLINE (Ovid) This link opens in a new windowPremier biomedical database with over 30 million journal articles in the life sciences. Similar to Pubmed in content, this Ovid interface facilitates structured searching and allows editing of search histories.
- MEDLINE (via EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new windowPremier international index to biomedical research covering more than 5000 journals and indexing over 22 million citations from 1946 to present.
- PubMed (1946 - present) This link opens in a new windowPremier database containing over 30 million references to journal articles in life sciences with a focus on biomedicine. Freely available and includes MEDLINE. This link goes to the version with UBC elink.
Nursing
- CINAHL - Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature This link opens in a new windowKey database in nursing and allied health.
Sociology
- Sociology Collection This link opens in a new windowIncludes Sociological Abstracts, Applied Social Sciences Index & Abstracts (ASSIA), and full text from the journals included in Sociology Database.
Education
- Education Source This link opens in a new windowEducation Source is the largest collection of full-text education journals for all levels of education from early childhood to higher education as well as multilingual education, health education and testing.
- ERIC (EBSCO interface) This link opens in a new windowMost comprehensive education index, covering nearly 1000 journals, primarily American. Also indexes ERIC documents, including conferences, curricula, reports etc. ERIC (EBSCO) includes many links to full text.
General
- Scopus This link opens in a new window Search citations and abstracts for journal articles, conference proceedings, and other resources in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities. Can also be used for cited reference searches, citation analysis of research and searching by affiliation.
- Web of Science Core Collection This link opens in a new windowMultidisciplinary database of journal articles and conference proceedings, used for citation analysis of research. Includes access to EndNote Basic, a web-based version of EndNote.
Population Specific
- Ethnic Diversity Source This link opens in a new windowA full-text database of journal articles, books, and primary sources that focus on various topics around ethnicity and race within the Americas.
- LGBTQ+ Source This link opens in a new windowThe premier resource to the world's literature regarding Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender issues.
- Informit Indigenous Collection This link opens in a new windowCollection includes journals, reports and monographs from Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Canada, the US and the Pacific.