Research Guides: Sociology: Find Articles / Databases

Sociology Research

Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new window Provides access to international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social & behavioral sciences. Coverage: 1952 to date. Updated monthly.
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SocINDEX Full Text This link opens in a new window Abstracts and links to articles in anthropology, criminal justice, ethnic & racial studies, gender studies, marriage & family, politics, psychology, religion, sociology, social work & many others. Articles back to 1940.
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Datasets and Demographics

General Social Survey This link opens in a new window Provides survey data from personal interview on U.S. households on attitudes, behaviors, and attributes of the American public, from 1972 to the present.
ICPSR (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research) This link opens in a new window Archives of downloadable datasets from various social science topics for research and instruction. Coverage: 1962 to present.
Social Explorer This link opens in a new window Provides thousands of interactive and downloadable data maps, charts, and reports with built-in data indicators related to demographic, economy, health, politics, crime, and environmental information in the USA.
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Statistical Abstract of the United States This link opens in a new window A summary of statistics on the United States social, political, and economy. Majority of the data is over time. The data tables provide source information for further research.
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Also Useful

Specialized databases in fields related to Sociology.

ABI/INFORM Complete This link opens in a new window A comprehensive business database with over 3,200 journals covering business and economic conditions, corporate strategies, management techniques, as well as competitive and product information. It consists of: ABI Global, ABI Archive, ABI Images, ABI Trade and Industry, Dateline, Business Dissertations, Hoovers, Oxford Research, Wall Street Journal, SnapShots North American, and EIU. Coverage: 1971 to date.
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Abstracts in Social Gerontology This link opens in a new window Current Literature on Aging sponsored by The National Council on the Aging, Inc. (NCOA), a private nonprofit organization which serves as a resource for information, research, training, technical assistance, advocacy, and leadership on aging. Founded in 1950 NCOA has a broad national membership of professionals, volunteers, and organizations that work with, for, and on behalf of older persons. Updated: Quarterly
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Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window Comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full text database with more than 5,300 full text periodicals, including 4,400 peer-reviewed journals. Offers indexing and abstracts for more than 9,300 journals and a total of 10,900 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc.
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AnthroSource This link opens in a new window Full-text archive and indexing of all American Anthropological Association (AAA) published journals, newsletters, and bulletins.
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Archives of Sexuality and Gender This link opens in a new window The full-text documents in the Archives of Human Sexuality and Identity: LGBTQ History and Culture include material drawn from hundreds of institutions and organizations, including both major international activist organizations and local, grassroots groups since 1940. They present important aspects of LGBTQ life in the second half of the twentieth century.
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ATLA Religion Database This link opens in a new window Indexes over 1200 scholarly journals, primarily in English, covering topics in the social sciences & humanities. Book reviews are included. Some general subject science material covered as well. Coverage: 1949 to date.
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CINAHL Plus with Full Text This link opens in a new window Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature is a resource for finding nursing and allied health literature: journals, books, pamphlets, audiovisuals, software, research instruments, nursing dissertations, evidence based care sheets, etc. and provides full text for 391 journals, plus legal cases, clinical innovations, critical paths, drug records, research instruments and clinical trials. Coverage: 1937 to present.
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Communication Source This link opens in a new window Provides articles in areas related to communication and mass media. Originated with the acquisition and subsequent merging of two popular databases in the fields of communication and mass media studies -- Communication and Mass Media Complete and Communication Abstracts.
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Coronavirus Research Database This link opens in a new window ProQuest built this database in response to the rapidly growing need for authoritative content related to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). The company is working together with institutions all over the world to offer support as they navigate through the coronavirus pandemic. This launch of the Coronavirus Research Database is the latest in a series of programs to help librarians, faculty and students.
CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window Find in-depth coverage of current political events. Each issue provides a summary, the pros-cons, a chronology, and a lengthy bibliography to more sources. 1991 to present.
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Criminal Justice Abstracts This link opens in a new window Comprehensive international coverage of the major journals in criminology and related disciplines. Coverage: 1968 to present. Updated quarterly.
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Environmental Issues Online This link opens in a new window Brings together multimedia materials around key environmental challenges, including climate change, water/air pollution, biodiversity, conservation, agriculture, deforestation and more.
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ERIC (via EBSCO) This link opens in a new window Education Resource Information Center, Find information about education, including journal articles, teaching guides, dissertations and theses, and books dating back to 1966.
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GenderWatch This link opens in a new window 40,000 full text articles from more than 100 international journals, books, magazines and newsletters, plus unpublished papers and conference proceedings and nearly 1,000 special reports devoted to gender and women's issues. Includes articles from the Ethnic NewsWatch database on ethnic and minority women and women of color. Coverage: 1978 to present.GenderWatch allows up to two simultaneous users.
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Human Rights Studies Online This link opens in a new window Access documentation, analysis, and interpretation of major human rights violations and atrocity crimes worldwide from 1900 to 2010. Coverage of Armenia, the Holocaust, Cambodia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Rwanda, Darfur, and more than thirty additional areas.
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Immigrations, Migrations and Refugees: Global Perspectives, 1941-1996 This link opens in a new window Primary sources covering 20th-century human migration, including firsthand accounts of post-World War II Jewish resettlement, South African apartheid, Latin American migrations to the United States, the first Gulf War and more. Sources include radio and television broadcasts, newspapers, and government documents gathered daily by a U.S. government organization that became part of the CIA. It covers issues such as xenophobia, religious movements, border issues, and the treatment of refugees.
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LGBT Thought and Culture This link opens in a new window Rare archival content, including letters, court documents, periodicals, speeches, interviews and ephemera from local, national and international organizations, as well as notable individuals from around the world, to trace the history of LGBT political, social and cultural movements from the late 19th century to the present day.
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Mass Incarceration and Prison Studies This link opens in a new window This collection examines prison populations and their relationship to major prison labor systems; and how correctional facilities may serve as central service providers for those with mental health issues.
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PRISMA Database This link opens in a new window Includes 165 full-text scholarly journals in the social sciences and humanities for the interdisciplinary academic study of Hispanic and Latin America and the Caribbean Basin.
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PsycINFO This link opens in a new window Contains abstracts and bibliographic citations for the contents of thousands of journals. Also includes references to dissertations, media, and books. Coverage: 1887 to present. Updated quarterly.
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Public Administration Abstracts This link opens in a new window Articles in areas related to public administration, including public administration theory, and other areas of key relevance to the discipline, like urbanism, transportation, police administration, recreation, housing, etc.
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Social Services Abstracts This link opens in a new window Provides abstracts from 1,300+ journals and dissertations in fields of social work, human services, social welfare, social policy and community development. Has automatic citation builder. 1979 to present. Abstracts available January 1994 - current.
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Social Work Online This link opens in a new window With over 100 hours of video and 50,000 pages of text this collection addresses the essential concepts students will employ in their everyday work as practitioners.
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Research Methods and Survey Tools

ETS TestLink: Test Collection Database This link opens in a new window A database of more than 25,000 tests and other measurement devices, most of which were created by authors outside ETS.
PsycTESTS This link opens in a new window PsycTESTS® is a research database that provides access to psychological tests, measures, scales, surveys, and other assessments as well as descriptive information about the test and its development and administration.
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Sage Research Methods (SRM) This link opens in a new window A research methods tool with links to more than 100,000 pages from books and journals plus new videos on research methods from one of the top publishers of research methodology content. Primary focus is on methodology rather than disciplines, so it can be used across social and behavioral sciences.
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Searching Techniques

Databases might have different interfaces but they have similar functionality:

AND Use AND between search terms to narrow a search by including more than one concept, e.g. teen AND pregnancy

OR Use OR between search terms to broaden a search by including synonyms for a concept, e.g. (teen OR adolescent)

" " Use quotation marks to search for a phrase, in the exact order you type it, e.g. “health care reform”.

* Use an asterisk to search for multiple versions of a word, e.g. obes* will allow you to search for obesity and obese.

() Use parentheses when you are using synonyms (see OR above).