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SOCI 4385: Research Methods

Find Articles...

Approach #1 -- OneSearch:



Sample natural language search:
how to address the problem of food deserts in cities

On results screen, add desired filters:

  • scholarly and peer-reviewed
  • journal article
  • if appropriate, a subject discipline

 

Approach #2 -- SocINDEX, Social Work Abstracts, & other subject databases:

Sample searches with keywords, logical operators, & wildcards:
"food deserts" AND cities
(food deserts OR food access) AND (cities OR urban*)

Select peer-reviewed, publication/document type, and other limiters on initial search screen or while viewing results.

Find more research databases in Databases A-Z and in relevant subject guides:

Sample citation:
Bedore, M. (2014). Food desertification: Situating choice and class relations within an urban political economy of declining food access. Studies in Social Justice, 8(2), 207-228. doi:10.26522/ssj.v8i2.1034

Use OneSearch to look for a DOI (digital object identifier) or to search for a distinctive "exact phrase" from the article title. Add an author name if needed. Examples:

  • doi:10.26522/ssj.v8i2.1034
  • "food desertification"
  • "food desertification" AND bedore

 



Advanced Search

SocINDEX with Full Text:

  • Subject terms, while helpful for focusing results, sometimes are not assigned until after the initial posting of a record. You also may want to try using subject terms as simple keywords (i.e., without requiring them to appear in the subjects field).
  • Don't limit to full text when you're exploring a topic in depth. You'll miss full text that's available via Find It @ UHCL.

Shows some terms limited to subject field while others use no field or a geographic terms field plus a limiter for scholarly peer-reviewed journals

Social Work Abstracts:

  • When looking for research studies, using relevant keywords (e.g., research* or study or studie* or data) in the Abstract field often finds more than looking for the term "research" in the Classification Code Title field; you may want to try both approaches
  • When you limit a term to the Subjects field, the Classification Code Title field will be included, also

Searches that use research-related keywords limited to the abstract field as described above or with the word research in the CT classification code title field plus limiters for scholarly peer-reviewed journals

A peer-reviewed (or refereed) journal:

  • uses experts from the same subject field or profession as the author to evaluate a manuscript prior to acceptance for publication
  • has articles that report on research studies or provide scholarly analysis of topics
  • may include book reviews, editorials, or other brief items that are not considered scholarly articles
Peer Review in 3 Minutes

(3:15) Explains the academic publishing process for research articles and scholarly journals, including the quality control process of peer review. North Carolina State Univ. Libraries

Essential Tools for Online Searching: AND, OR, and Wildcards

(1:43) Learn how logical operators AND and OR work to help you get good results in library research databases.

(1:55) Learn how to retrieve varying forms of a word and improve search results.

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