Sociology 271 - Methods of Social Research

Fall 2007

BOOKS AND VIDEOS

The CONSORT catalog can be used to locate books, video and sound recordings, and some government documents available in the Kenyon, Denison, Ohio Wesleyan and Wooster libraries. It also lists all the journals we subscribe to, in paper or electronic form.

CONSORT also provides access to OhioLINK, which indicates the holdings of over 80 libraries throughout Ohio. You may borrow books directly from either CONSORT or OhioLINK. Requested materials typically arrive at Kenyon 2 to 3 working days after the request is made. Items from Denison typically arrive the next day.

JOURNAL ARTICLES IN SOCIOLOGY

Article indexes are produced by scholarly associations or companies trying to reflect all the publishing in a particular subject. Kenyon subscribes to more than 5,700 journals, with more than 4,500 available online.

Keep in mind, though, that not every journal or book title indexed will be held in the Kenyon Library. Check CONSORT to see if we own an item. Use the InterLibrary Loan (ILL) office to request journal articles we do not own. (Estimated time for an item to arrive is at least 7-10 days).

SocINDEX with Full Text
SocINDEX, a comprehensive sociology database, contains abstracts for more than 815 'core' coverage journals dating back to 1895. In addition, this file provides data mined from more than 630 'priority' coverage journals as well as 2,840 'selective' coverage journals. SocINDEX with Full Text contains full text for 397 "core" coverage journals dating back to 1908, and 150 "priority" coverage journals. This database also includes full text for 720 books and monographs, and full text for 6,743 conference papers.

ISI Web of Science (Social Science Citation Index) (1980 - )
Once you have found an author or article which interests you, you can use the Cited Reference search in the Social Sciences Citation Index, to find other papers which build on that research. You can also perform a general search using subject terms, author, journal title, or author affiliation.

INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH

Different databases cover different sources, so you may get different search results. An interdisciplinary index tries to cover the major publications in many fields, instead of many publications in one field. Depending on your topic, you may find some interesting articles in other fields, but remember to read them in a sociological framework.

Academic Search Complete
Academic Search Complete is a comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full text database designed specifically for academic institutions. This resource contains more than 5,300 full-text periodicals, including 4,400 peer-reviewed journals. In addition, Academic Search Complete offers indexing and abstracts for more than 9,300 journals and a total of 10,900 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc. The database features PDF content going back as far as 1865, with the majority of full text titles in native (searchable) PDF format.

Academic Universe
Academic Universe provides access to full text U.S. and International news, legal, business and reference sources.

Roper Center for Public Opinion

Education FullText (1983 - present) and ERIC (1966 - present)are the major databases available for searching the academic research and professional literature in education. Education FullText provides citations and abstracts to over 400 periodicals covering administration, teaching methods, and curriculum on all levels. ERIC is a guide to published and unpublished sources on thousands of educational topics; the unpublished materials are noted with an "ERIC Number" beginning with ED. (Journal articles will begin with EJ.) Although Kenyon does not own many of these "ERIC Documents", we may be able to get them through ILL; please consult with the InfoDesk to make sure your request is clear.

GPO Monthly Catalog
Bibliographic citations corresponding to the Monthly Catalog of U.S. Government Publications, the Periodical Supplement, and the U.S. Congressional Serial Set Supplement. Topics include finance, public health, business,and agriculture.

PsycINFO may be interesting for a social psychology viewpoint. More specific to this course, after doing a search in PsycINFO, you can click on the link to All Limit Options and limit the results to the Methodology "Qualitative Study." This will show you examples of qualitative work in another discipline.

WEBSITES (from class discussion)

Google U.S. Government Search (AKA Google/UncleSam)
Search engine that only searches government web sites. Will search Federal, State and Local government websites, as well as militrary, U.S.P.S., and other government-related organizations.

FedStats

Statistical Resources on the Web
Site is hosted by the University of Michigan's Library's Government DocumentS Center.

U.S. Census Bureau

GOVERNMENT/STATISTIC REFERENCE SOURCES (PRINT)

2007 County and City Extra: Annual Metro, City, and County Data Book, 15th Edition [Info Desk HA 203. C68 2007]

CQ's State Fact Finder 2007 [Info Desk HA 214. C8 2007]

Finding Statistics Online [Info Desk HA 33.5 B47 1998]

Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2007, 126th Edition [Info Desk HA 202. A1 2007]
The National Data Book. Copies dating back to 1887 are available in the main reference stacks.

The United States Government Internet Manual [Info Desk JK 421 .U567 2007]

MORE REFERENCE SOURCES (PRINT)

Handbook of Qualitative Research [Ref. H62. H24 55 2000]
Discusses the theoretical, design, and methodological issues surrounding qualitative research methods. Compare with the Handbook of Applied Social Research Methods, which concentrates on quantitative measures.

Evaluating Research in Academic Journals [Ref. H62 .P97 1999]
This work provides a list of issues that come up in generating, publishing, and using research in the social sciences. Each chapter addresses a different part of a scholarly research article (abstract, literature review, methodology, results, and discussion) and suggests ways to consider the work in each section.

LOCAL PUBLICATIONS

Mount Vernon News
mountvernonnews.com
Kenyon keeps the current four months in print, and owns microfilm back to 1939. A complete backfile is also available at the Public Library. Unfortunately, local papers are very rarely indexed; you will need to pick a date in history to begin browsing through the papers for information. Kenyon also owns on microfilm:

The Centerburg Gazette (1935-1983)
Danville Times (1966-1994)
Knox County Citizen (1922-1992)

GETTING RESEARCH HELP

For individual reference assistance, contact:

Julia Glynn
Chalmers Library, Room 202
Librarian and Technology Consultant
740.427.5834

Reference assistance is also available at the Information Desk in Olin Library. Stop by, call (740-427-5691), or E-mail InfoDesk@kenyon.edu
Hours