Research Guides: Social Work: Get Started

Starting Points

Use the resources and information on this guide to get started with research on various topics in Social Work.

Consult background and reference materials and use Library Search below to find and access books, journal articles, and much more. Library Search FAQs and Library Search Tutorial
Use Subclass HV, LC Classification (Call Numbers) and Subject Headings for Social Work.

Top Resources

Encyclopedia of Social Work This link opens in a new window
Concurrent user limit: 1
Encyclopedia of Social Work is a collaboration between the National Association of Social Workers (NASW Press) and Oxford University Press (OUP). This resource provides articles on topics ranging from international issues to ethical standards.

Tip: The above link provides browsing by subject. The 20th edition (2008) can also be browsed and searched on Oxford Reference Library (unlimited users) by A to Z entries. Use the "Search within work" box to look up terms and phrases.
To get a sense of the structure and organization, view a full listing of A to Z entries on the NASW Press site.

Encyclopedia of Macro Social Work
Concurrent user limit: 1
The Encyclopedia of Macro Social Work updates and expands upon all of the macro content in the Encyclopedia of Social Work. Articles cover macro practice methods (organizations, community, policy); macro theories, concepts, ideologies, problems; and contexts relating to macro social work.

Social Services Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Social Services Abstracts provides bibliographic coverage of current research focused on social work, human services, and related areas, including social welfare, social policy, and community development. Via ProQuest.
ProQuest Social Science Premium Collection This link opens in a new window
A cross-database search of international literature in social sciences, including politics, public policy, sociology, social work, anthropology, criminology, linguistics, library science, and education. You lose some advanced filtering capability by searching here, but gain the convenience of searching everything in 17 social science databases at once. Social Services Abstracts is included.
Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
This Ebscohost multi-disciplinary collection of databases provides full text scholarly publications and full-text journals.
PsychiatryOnline This link opens in a new window
Psychiatry Online includes access to the full-text of the DSM-V (DSM-5) as well as several journals from American Psychiatric Publishing, including the American Journal of Psychiatry.
APA PsycInfo This link opens in a new window
APA PsycInfo contains citations and summaries of journal articles, book chapters, books and technical reports, as well as citations to dissertations, all in the field of psychology and psychological aspects of related disciplines, such as medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education, pharmacology, physiology, linguistics, anthropology, business and law.
Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Web of Science indexes core journal articles, conference proceedings, data sets, and other resources in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities. It also includes access to EndNote Online.
Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Note: Follow these instructions to link Google Scholar with Temple's resources.
Google Scholar provides search for scholarly literature. It covers disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations.
Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Concurrent user limit: unlimited
Credo Reference provides access to a large number of encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri and other reference books. Subjects covered include art, biography, history, literature, music, religion, and science and technology.

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Van Tran

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Email Me

Contact:

van.bich.tran@temple.edu
Charles Library

215-204-8244

Subjects: Public Health, Social Work

Grand Challenges

Grand Challenges for Social Work and Society
Publication Date: 2022-04-15
Reviews the state and progress, with examples of what has worked, for the 13 challenges. Challenges include homelessness, child development and mental health, health gap, social isolation, changing environment, technology for social good, mass incarceration, ending racism, family violence, financial capability and assets, equal opportunity and justice, and economic inequality.