Sociology: Searching Tips for Sociology Databases

SocINDEX with Full Text – Offers comprehensive coverage of sociology, encompassing all sub-disciplines and closely related areas of study. Full-text journals, informative abstracts, books, monographs, conference papers and other non-periodical content sources, the database also includes searchable cited references for core coverage journals dating as far back as 1895.           

Special Features of SocINDEX 

• Subject Terms- Thesaurus of terms that are used as subject headings (also referred to as subjects)
• Selecting records, saving to folder, and exporting functions are the same as in other EBSCO databases         

ProQuest Criminal Justice – Comprehensive database supporting research on crime, its causes and impacts, legal and social implications, as well as litigation and crime trends. Contains U.S. and international scholarly journals, corrections and correctional and law enforcement trade publications, reports, news, crime statistics, and crime blogs.​

A few search limiters show up on the left side of the search results screen. Ones that may be the most helpful are Full Text, Publication Date, and Source Type (academic journals, books, magazines, etc.)

Search results show subject headings, labeled Subjects.

Subject Terms in SocIndex is helpful to look up associated terms based on your initial keyword, not only to get the subject heading, but to include similar concepts that you may not have thought of in earlier searches. 

A few search limiters show up on the left side of the search results screen.

Ones that may be the most helpful are Full Text, Peer Reviewed, and Source Type (academic journals, books, magazines, etc.)

Subject headings are not shown in search results. Full text access and abstract/details are listed. 

Upon clicking on an article's record, subject headings are found in the abstract/details section. 

Guides for the major styles are below.