Social Work
How to Find Scholarly Research Information
Need an effective search strategy? See the Information Literacy Microcourse Module B: Transforming Your Research Question into a Search Strategy to learn techniques for developing a robust and effective search strategy.
Using Library Search and Databases to find scholarly research? See the Information Literacy Microcourse Module C: Accessing Journal Articles and Books to learn how to use different databases to find electronic and print version of scholarly research materials.
Want to read scientific information more effectively? See the Information Literacy Microcourse Module G: Reading (and Making Sense of) Scientific Research Articles to learn strategies for making sense of complex scientific research information.
(Note: Information Literacy Microcourse is available only to WMU students and employees. WMU faculty and staff will need to register here to access the Microcourse)
Scholarly Research Databases
- WMU Library Search (Advanced Search)This interdisciplinary search interface contains scholarly journal articles, books, newspapers, government information, streaming videos, and much more.
- Sociological Abstracts and Social Services Abstracts (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Sociological Abstracts, and its companion file Social Services Abstracts, covers the international literature of sociology, social work, and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. It provides abstracting and indexing of articles and book reviews drawn from thousands of serials publications, books and book chapters, dissertations, conference papers, and working papers.
To search Social Service Abstracts only, Click here.
To search Sociological Abstracts only, Click here. - ERIC (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new window
This is the core index in the field of Education. Includes citations with abstracts for over 2,000 journals and more than 450,000 reports in education and related fields.Covers 1966-present. This database is also available from the US government.
- Criminal Justice Database This link opens in a new window
Searchable and browsable database of U.S.and international criminal justice journals. The database includes abstract and indexing for over 400 titles, with more than 170 available in full-text from 1981-present.
- PsycINFO This link opens in a new window
Covers world-wide literature in psychology and related disciplines. Journal articles, technical reports, books, book chapters, and dissertations are included. Coverage from 1806 to Current. Updated weekly.
- Scopus This link opens in a new windowIndexes scholarly literature in the natural and social sciences. Use this to get extensive inter-disciplinary access to journal articles and also to find out which articles are being cited by other scholars . Cited references from 1970-present, records from 1788-present. NOTE: For best results, please use Chrome or Firefox browsers.
- Medline Plus This link opens in a new windowHealth information from the National Library of Medicine presented accessibly for professionals and non-professionals.
- ProQuest Political Science This link opens in a new window
ProQuest Political Science covers the literature of political science and international relations, including such topics as comparative politics, political economy, international development, environmental policy, and hundreds of related topics. This database includes over 150 leading political science and international relations journals, many of which are core titles included in Worldwide Political Science Abstracts.
Standardized Testing Instruments
- Mental Measurement Yearbook + Tests in Print This link opens in a new window
Mental Measurements Yearbook includes full-text reviews of 3,000+ contemporary testing instruments, plus all previous editions of the Yearbook dating back to 1938 (10,000+ full-text reviews). Tests in Print provides vital information about tests, including test purpose, intended test population, administration times, scores generated, price, test publisher, in-print status, test acronym, publication dates and test authors.
This subscription is limited to four simultaneous users. Please log out when finished. - PsycTESTS This link opens in a new window
Includes over 7500 profiles and 5400 unpublished, non-commercial tests, measures, scales, surveys, and other assessments with description, purpose, limited history, administration, and usually the actual test instrument for measurement in psychology, psychiatry, business, education, social science, neuroscience, law, medicine, and social work. Coverage dates from the early 1900s to the present, where 54% are from 2000 or later, and 74% are from 1990 or later.