WISER Social Sciences

Information sources for education,

sociology and applied social sciences

Louise Clarke & Judy Reading

Oxford University Library Services

Session Overview

Accessing electronic resources Cambridge Scientific Abstracts for

sociologists and applied social scientists British Education Index and ERIC Subject searching on OLIS Other key resources

Accessing electronic resources

OxLIP (Oxford Libraries Information Platform) http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/oxlip/index.html

Finding aids – catalogues, abstracting and indexing services

Full-text – journal articles, official documents, newspapers, ebooks

Tools for current awareness – digests, theses, alerting services

Datasets and statistics Reference works

Accessing electronic resources

Some resources require a password or offer password access when you are off campus. A number of publishers have agreed to a single password system called Athens Registration http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/athens/ MyAthens http://www.athensams.net/myathens/

For off campus access to non-password resources register for the VPN or Dial-up http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/network/remote/

CSA: ASSIA

Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA) ASSIA (Applied Social Sciences Indexes

and Abstracts) Indexes and abstracts 650 journals 1987 onwards Emphasis upon practical applications of

social science and health research

CSA: Sociological Abstracts

Sociological Abstracts Indexes and abstracts over 1,800 journals Also provides abstracts of selected books,

book chapters, dissertations, and conference papers

1953 onwards Emphasis is on covering the international

literature in sociology & related disciplines

CSA: Other databases

Social Services Abstracts current research focused on social work and human

sciences from over 1,600 serials beginning 1980 National Criminal Justice Reference Service

Abstracts U.S. and international publications from 1972

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts 1,500 serials in political science from 1975

Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) educational-related materials from 1966 onwards

CSA: Database records

TI = title AB = abstract AU = author

Use the database author index (under search tools) to find alternative forms of the authors name

DE = descriptors Use the database thesaurus (under search tools) to find

descriptors. KW = keywords

Searches the TI, AB, DE and ID (identifiers) fields SO = source

Look in the serials source list for abbreviated journal title

CSA: Combining search terms

Use and to narrow a search and retrieve records containing all search terms

Use or to broaden a search and retrieve records containing any of the search terms

Use not to narrow search and retrieve records excluding search terms

Use near to find terms within 10 words of each other or specify within ‘x’

Use ( ) to group terms/define relationships Otherwise searches for terms as a phrase

CSA: Search tips

Use * to truncate a search term feminis* retrieves feminist, feminists, feminism behavi*r retrieves behaviour and behavior

Use ? to find alternative spellings wom?n for women and woman

If searching for acronyms include both the acronym and the terms spelt in full ESRC or (Economic and Social Research Council)

Click on ‘help & support’ for online help, or ask a librarian.

CSA: Cited reference linking

Some databases in CSA, e.g. Sociological Abstracts, contain links to cited references locate current research based on earlier research find out how many times, and where, a publication is

being cited identify who is referencing a particular paper explore how a particular research topic is being used

to support other research analyze the impact of a publication on other research

in the field track the history of a research idea keep track of your own research

CSA: Scholar profiles

Records from selected CSA Social Science databases that describe articles published after 2000, have been matched to Scholar profiles to provide verified links between articles and authors

Scholar profiles include contact information, education, research interests, home page, and verified publication lists as available

Covers 1,500 US and Canadian Universities

British Education Index

Indexes journal articles, theses and web documents. Most British journals and major international journals The database covers all aspects and fields of education

from preschool to adult and higher education Material indexed very easily available in the UK – most in

Oxford University libraries See also other services from British Education Index

ERIC

Available from various platforms including Firstsearch Contains annotated references to educational materials

issued in the monthly Resources in Education (RIE) and to journal articles issued in the monthly Current Index to Journals in Education (CIJE).

Much more content than the BEI but journals indexed are less likely to be available here

Includes full-text papers and reports available online Produced in the US but does have international

coverage

Subject searching on OLIS

OLIS (Oxford Libraries’ catalogue) offers a subject index - Library of Congress Subject Headings

Look at the index terms attached to a resource you know is relevant to get you started

Use the browse option to identify relevant subject terms – follow cross-references

Use the keyword options to combine those terms Use the web version of the catalogue if you want to mark and

print or email records identified OLIS does not index journals – you need to use a journal index

to identify articles and then locate the journal title in OLIS.

Official papers and web resources

Useful guidance is available from the Bodleian Official Papers webpage http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/readerserv/official/collections.html

For education, see the Educational Studies website http://www2.ouls.ox.ac.uk/edstud/weblinksindex.html

For the applied social sciences, two helpful websites are: Social Care Online http://www.scie-socialcareonline.org.uk/ Social Policy Digest

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=JSP OXLIP has links to key resources including UKOP

Other key resources

SCOPUS New research service from Elsevier World’s largest abstracts database of over

15,000 titles from 4,000 publishers Records from 1966 onwards The TOUR icon will link you to full-text

Other key resources

ISI Web of Knowledge Abstracts of 1,700 journals from 1981- Index of citations from 1956- Reports on articles cited, other papers

using the same citations, and later citations of the paper

Citations create a “web of knowledge”

Other key resources

International Bibliography of the Social Sciences Economics Political Science Sociology Anthropology

1951 – present Abstracts included for most articles from 1999 -

Other key resources

PsychINFO Index and abstracts of 1,900 journals 1872 onwards Covers psychology and related disciplines WebSPIRS database

Other key resources

TDNet: A system for managing Oxford’s access to electronic journals

Current journals from major publisher sites (e.g., Science Direct, Ingenta)

‘Delayed’ publication journals from JSTOR and Project MUSE

LexisNexis Electronic newspapers To restrict your search to a specific newspaper; in the

additional terms search box use the prefix PUB followed by the term in brackets, e.g. PUB (Financial Times)

Other key resources

Don’t forget Library staff are here to help you – you are welcome to make an appointment for assistance:

Contacts: judy.reading@edstud.ox.ac.uk,

louise.clarke@ssl.ox.ac.uk Look at the other training available from OULS –

see http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/information_skills

Finally

Please give us feedback on this session and let us know what was helpful and what else would be.

Fill in the form at http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/courses/feedback/index.xsp

before you leave