SWK 662 Applied Research in Social Work
Finding Published Articles about Social Service Programs and Evaluations
Use a Database to find citations to articles on your topic. Links to Selected Subscription Databases for Social Work are available here.
I. Search strategies: keyword searches with truncation and phrase searching
II.Recommended Databases: Advanced Search Field
III. Other Recommended Databases Covering Specific Topics
IV. I found some citations to articles that I want in a database. Where do I find the text?
V. Testing Resources
You can use any word you can think of as a keyword. In most databases, you can truncate these terms to find varied endings with the same root.
Examples of truncation:
Use To find abus* abuse, abused, abusive, etc. assess* assess, assesses, assessment, assessments, assessing depress* depressed, depression, etc. evaluat* evaluate, evaluation, evaluated, etc. effect* effect, effective, effectiveness, etc. effic* efficacy, efficacious, efficaciously, efficaciousness, etc. outcome* outcome, outcomes, etc. program* program, programs, programming, etc. Some databases use a ? or other symbol instead of * for truncation. Check the help screen, or just try a search to see if a symbol works. Psycinfo, Social Services Abstracts, Sociological Abstracts, and Social Work Abstracts use *.
Phrase searching is useful in some databases when you want to find an exact phrase.
A search for: Would find: "family violence" citations that include the phrase family violence family violence citations that include the word family and citations that include the word violence "child abuse" citations that include the phrase child abuse child abuse citations that include the word child and citations that include the word abuse
II. Recommended Databases: Advanced Search Field
1. Psycinfo
2. Social Services Abstracts
3. Sociological Abstracts
4. Social Work Abstracts1. Psycinfo
Description: International literature in psychology and related behavioral and social sciences, including psychiatry, sociology, anthropology, education, pharmacology, child and family studies, marriage and family therapy, gerontology, and linguistics. 1887 - present; updated monthly.Advanced Search Field: Click "content type" in the pulldown menu. Type any one or more of these words in the search box next to content type. Unlike keyword searching, it is important to type the word exactly as it appears in the search field . For more than one term type, for example, experimental OR empirical. To find additional content types, click the
button next to content type in Psycinfo.
Content Type (examples) Experimental
Empirical
Evaluation
Followup
Outcomes
Program
Quantitative
Qualitative
Study
Survey
Test
Trial
2. Social Services Abstracts
Description: Bibliographic coverage of current research focused on social work, human services, and related areas, including social welfare, social policy, and community development. The database abstracts and indexes over 1,500 serials publications from 1980-present and includes abstracts of journal articles and dissertations, and citations to book reviews.Advanced Search Field: Click "descriptors" in pulldown menu. Type any one or more of these words or phrases in the search box next to descriptor. Do not include the definition in parenthesis below. Unlike keyword searching, it is important to type the word exactly as it appears in the search field to avoid getting no results. For more than one term type, for example, experimental OR empirical. To find additional descriptors, use the Thesaurus in the database, or observe descriptors listed in the results of your search.
Descriptors (examples) Action Research (Study of social phenomena in a real context, rather than under artificially controlled conditions.)
Applied Research
Cost-benefit analysis
Case Studies
Effectiveness
Experiments
Failure
Fieldwork
Longitudinal Studies (Methods of Data Collection in which the same persons or groups are observed over a period of time.)
Programs
Program Evaluation
Quality
Research
Social Impact Assessment (A method of analyzing the impact of a government action on the social aspects of the environment.)
Success
Surveys3. Sociological Abstracts
Description: Bibliographic coverage of sociology, social work, aging, gerontology, child and family studies, marriage and family therapy and other social sciences. The database provides abstracts of journal articles and citations to book reviews drawn from over 1,700 serials publications, and also provides abstracts of books, book chapters, dissertations, and conference papers. Covers 1963 to the present; updated six times per year.
Advanced Search Field: Use the same Advanced Search Field information as for Social Services Abstracts above. Additionally, the descriptor Prognosis/Prognostication may be useful.
4. Social Work Abstracts
Description: More than 26,000 records, spanning 1977 to the present, from social work and other related journals on topics such as homelessness, AIDS, child and family welfare, aging, substance abuse, legislation, community organization, and more. NASW Clinical Register database contains listing of registered social workers, including their address and phone numbers, education and specialization, type of practice and license information. Access Note: Two simultaneous users only.Hint: To see all abstracts at once when your results come up, click
, click the radio button for "complete record", and click
.
Advanced Search Field: Click radio button for Subject above the search box. Or, click Index on the right side of the screen and then choose Descriptor from the pulldown menu. Unlike keyword searching, it is important to type the word exactly as it appears in the search field to avoid getting no results.
Descriptors (examples) Case study
Evaluation
Outcomes
Performance
Program
Program-evaluation
Program-effectiveness
Research
Service-utilization
III. Other Recommended Databases Covering Specific Topics
Ageline
Child Abuse, Child Welfare, and Adoption
Education Abstracts
ERIC
Links to Selected Subscription Databases for Social Work are available here.
Please contact Adina Mulliken for help finding citations to articles on your topic if needed.
Citation style guides
These links explain how to write citations for the bibliography of your paper. More thorough explanations are available in Publication manual of the American Psychological Association and other style guides, located at the Reference Desk in Bird Library.Please Ask Us for help locating text of articles if needed.
This website, developed by SU Librarian Tasha Cooper, includes links to Internet resources about tests and citations to print materials in the Bird Library Reference Section about testing.
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