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Subject Guide for Sociology
Sociology 2031, Instructor: Opsal
- Popular vs. Scholarly Sources
- Concepts and Terms
- Keyword Searching
- How to Find Articles
- Recommended Research Resources
- Accessing Library Resources from Off-Campus
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Scholarly |
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When starting research on a particular topic, you want to first identify the main concepts of your research question.
Question: What is the extent of alcohol abuse among undergraduates?
Concepts: Alcohol abuse; Undergraduates
Once you've identified the concepts, think of other terms that describe the same concept. You can also think of broader and narrower terms for the concepts.
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You can use thesauri to help you find other terms for your topic. It is also important to think about what types of material you are looking for popular and scholarly sources may use different language to describe the same thing.
Once you have your terms that you want to use, you need to construct your search. You can group your terms using operators (like in the example below):
Operators : AND, OR, NOT
Example 1: undergraduates AND alcohol ( must have both terms)
Example 2: undergraduates OR alcohol ( must have one term)
Example 3: undergraduates NOT alcohol (record must have first term and NOT second term)
Punctuation :
Phrases: Alcohol Abuse (words in order)
Synonyms: (undergraduates OR "college students") AND alcohol
Wildcards: alcohol* will find alcohol, alcoholism, alcoholic, etc.
Find Articles & More - http://ucblibraries.colorado.edu/research/findarticles/
The library's article databases are listed alphabetically or by subject.
(Subject examples: Sociology, Women's Studies, etc.)
Subject Guides - http://ucblibraries.colorado.edu/research/subjectguides/
Librarians have compiled subject guides of the important resources (print, Internet and database) for many disciplines, including Sociology and Women's Studies.
E-Journal Finder - http://ucblibraries.colorado.edu/research/ejournalfinder.htm
Search the E-Journal Finder for databases that provide a specific journal's content.
ProQuest Newsstand
URL: http://ucblibraries.colorado.edu/research/findarticles/alpha-p.htm
About: This database provides access to over 350 newspaper titles from around the country, many of which have the full text available.
Searching Tips: You can limit your results by date of publication, by specific newspaper, by person or subject, or by choosing a specific document type. You can expand your results by using the subjects that are provided with each article. You can email the articles or print the full text or PDF, where available.
Academic Search Premier
URL: http://ucblibraries.colorado.edu/research/findarticles/alpha-a.htm
About: Provides full text journal coverage for nearly all academic areas of study - including social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, language and linguistics, arts & literature, medical sciences, and ethnic studies.
Searching Tips: You can limit your results to full text only, by date of publication, by publication type (i.e. newspaper) or by specific title. You can expand your results by searching the full text of the article. You can email the articles or print the full text or PDF, where available.
Sociology Subject Guide
URL: http://ucblibraries.colorado.edu/research/subjectguides/sociology/index.htm
This is a collection of the important resources (print, Internet and database) for Sociology, including a page created for this particular class.
The easiest method of accessing library databases from off campus is through the use of the VPN (Virtual Private Network). Current CU-Boulder students, staff, and faculty need to install the VPN software on their computer and login to the VPN using their IdentiKey account.
Complete instructions on downloading and using the VPN software can be found at the ITS VPN Information Page: http://www.colorado.edu/its/vpn/ . For questions (and answers) about using the VPN, please call the ITS Help Desk at (303) 735-HELP.
