Research
Resources > Subject Guides
Subject
Guide for Sociology
Sociology 3401, Instructor: Brown
Popular vs. Scholarly Sources
Popular |
Scholarly |
• Written by journalists, not experts
• Can include glossy photos/paper
• Usually includes advertisements
• Intended for a general audience
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• Written by scholars (credentials listed)
• Includes works cited
• Journal is peer-reviewed
• Intended for an academic audience
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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.
Alcohol Abuse
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Undergraduates
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• Alcohol Abuse
• Binge Drinking
• Alcoholism
• Drinking
• Substance Abuse
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• Undergraduate Students
• College Students
• University Students
• Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior
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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.)
E-Journal Finder - http://ucblibraries.colorado.edu/research/ejournalfinder.htm
Search the E-Journal Finder for databases that provide a specific journal's content.
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.
Chinook - http://libraries.colorado.edu/
Chinook is the library catalog for materials at CU – find journal articles by doing a “Periodical Title” search for the journal name (NOT the article name).
Sociological Abstracts
URL:
http://ucblibraries.colorado.edu/research/findarticles/sociology.htm
About: This database abstracts and indexes the international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. The database provides abstracts of journal articles and citations to book reviews drawn from over 1,800+ serials publications, and also provides abstracts of books, book chapters, dissertations, and conference papers.
Searching Tips: When looking at search results, you can click on the “Peer-Reviewed Journals” tab to only see results from peer-reviewed publications. Also, you can use the “Descriptors” that are available for each article in order to find similar articles on your topic.
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.
Accessing Library Resources from Off-Campus |
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.
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