Research Guides: Social Work: Find Articles

Searching Tips

This 2-page handout describes some search techniques and how to connect to full text articles after doing a database search.

Tips for Successful Online Searching

Boolean Searching

Build more effective searches by learning about "Boolean operators" when connecting your search terms.

Recommended Key Databases

Social Work Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Contains more than 35,000 records from social work and other related journals. Publication date coverage: 1977 to present.

Search these indexes for journal, magazine or newspapers articles, book reviews, conference proceedings, dissertations, etc.

Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Abstracts and indexes the international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. The database provides abstracts of journal articles and citations to book reviews drawn from thousands of serials publications, and also provides abstracts of books, book chapters, dissertations, and conference papers. Dates of coverage: 1952-current
PsycINFO (EBSCOhost APA) This link opens in a new window
Contains citations and summaries of journal articles, book chapters, books, dissertations, and technical reports in the field of psychology and the psychological aspects of related disciplines, such as medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education, pharmacology, physiology, linguistics, anthropology, business, and law. It is the largest resource devoted to peer-reviewed literature in behavioral science and mental health.
PAIS (Public Affairs Information Service) Index This link opens in a new window
Covers all subjects that bear on public affairs and public policy, including the policy-oriented literature of academic social sciences such as economics, finance, law, education, the military, political science, public administration, international law and relations. Indexes publications from and about all countries, PAIS Archive coverage: 1915-1976; PAIS International coverage: 1972-current

Additional Databases to Consider

LitCovid
Stay up to date on global literature for COVID-19 topics

ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center : EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new window
The premier database for education, providing access to more than 1.3 million records and links to more than 323,000 full-text ERIC documents dating back to 1966.

Depending on your specific topic, population of interest, approach, etc., consider one of the following specialized databases. For more online resources, check out the complete Database List.

Criminal Justice Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Indexes journals from all areas of criminology and criminal justice and from around the world. Dates of coverage: 1968-current
Violence & Abuse Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Indexes books and journals covering essential areas related to violence and abuse, including family violence, sexual assault, emotional abuse, and other areas of key relevance to the discipline. Dates of coverage: 1995-current
Family Studies Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Indexes articles on marriage, divorce, family therapy, and other areas from the most important journals in the discipline.
LGBTQ+ Source This link opens in a new window
Contains all of the content available in LGBT Life with Full Text as well as full text for the most important and historically significant LGBTQ+ journals, magazines regional newspapers, as well as monographs and books. It includes comprehensive indexing and abstract coverage as well as a specialized LGBTQ+ thesaurus containing thousands of terms.

Getting Articles

Click on the Check for Full Text icon in the database record to see how to get a copy of the article: whether online, in print or from another library.

This 2-minute video provides a brief demonstration.

If the UNH Library doesn't have the article you want, request it through Interlibrary Loan.

Peer Reviewed?

Check:

- the database record for the article, which sometimes indicates whether a journal is peer reviewed

- the journal website, esp. under About Us or Information for Authors

- Ulrichsweb, a database of information about journals, and look for the Refereed symbol next to the journal title

Key Social Work Journals

Browse Tables of Contents from selected important social work journals.