Where to Search
Use Sociology Databases to find articles on your topic.
Many of the articles contain full-text, meaning that the actual article is available in the database.
Databases contain proprietary content from a variety of scholarly journals, conference proceedings, books, dissertations, and more.
Some databases contain content from only one publisher, such as Elsevier or Wiley, while others have content, or index articles, from a variety of publishers.
Also, see the suggested databases listed on this research guide.
Searching for Full Text
If you come across a citation to an article and you'd like to track down its full text, follow the steps below:
- Start Your Research (SYR)1. When searching for the full text of an article, start by searching the "title of an article" (enclosed in "quotation marks") in SYR.
- Periodical List (PL)2. If you're unable to locate the fulltext by searching the article title in SYR, next try searching the "journal title" in PL, which is a searchable list of print/online journals accessible through the University Libraries.
- Interlibrary Loan (ILL)3. If the Library does not have print/online access to a journal you need an article from, request a copy of the article via ILL.
The example below shows that The Journal of Continuing Higher Education is accessible in print/microform as well as online. The entry also shows coverage dates to indicate which years are accessible.
Search Strategies
Search by keywords and small phrases.
Maximize your keyword searches with Boolean searching:
| AND | internet AND teenagers | all words must appear in the result list |
| OR | teenagers OR adolescents | either word may appear in the results |
| NOT | internet NOT "social network" | must mention the term "internet", but excludes items with the phrase "social network |
Use "quotation marks" to search for phrases.
Consider truncation. The asterisk (*) symbol is used most often
math* will search for all forms of the root:
math, mathematics
mathematical
mathematician
mathematicians
math education
Try using database Subject or descriptor terms. Those are listed in the database’s thesaurus, or they may be listed near the article abstract. These can be useful for learning the preferred vocabulary of a discipline.