Research Guides: Social Work: Find Books & Articles

Using Library Search

Use Subclass HV, Library of Congress (LC) Classification (Call Numbers). Main ones are listed in the Search for Ebooks section.
Search for LC Subject Headings (LCSH) to use in Library Search to use or select and paste a terms from Subject Headings for Social Work. Alternatively, from the result for Books & Media in Library Search, select subject terms that appear in the subject field.

LCSH is a controlled vocabulary for indexing/cataloging books, media and other library collections. Each subject heading shows synonym (variant) terms and hierarchical relationships among subject headings.
There are also geographic and demographic/ethnic group headings.

Use E-ZBorrow and ILLIAD (Interlibrary Loan) to request materials not available at Temple.
Use WorldCat to discover and locate resources anywhere in the world.
To search online books only, go to the Search for Ebooks section.
For additional help contact the Social Work librarian.

Social Work and Social Policy Databases

APA PsycInfo is on the Ebscohost platform. All the other databases in this section are on the ProQuest platform and uses the Sociological Thesaurus.

APA PsycInfo This link opens in a new window
Psychology journals, books, reports, etc.
Applied Social Sciences Index & Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Coverage of literature in social service, health care, psychology and more, includes 16 countries, focusing on the UK.
PAIS International This link opens in a new window
Covering literature related to public policy, international coverage. "...contains references to more than 553,300 journal articles, books, government documents, statistical directories, grey literature, research reports, conference reports, publications of international agencies, microfiche, Internet material, and more." (from the publisher)
ProQuest Social Science Database This link opens in a new window
Social Science Database offers indexing and full text for hundreds of academic journals across a wide range of social science disciplines including anthropology, communication, criminology, economics, education, political science, psychology, social work, and sociology.
Social Services Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Indexes articles on social work, welfare, policy, etc.
Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Sociological Abstracts provides coverage of the world's literature on sociology and applied aspects of sociology.

Medicine and Health Databases

PubMed This link opens in a new window
PubMed comprises more than 37 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites. MEDLINE (Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online) is the largest component of PubMed and consists primarily of journal citations; articles indexed with MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) and curated with funding, genetic, chemical and other metadata.

PubMed indexes contents that are about or related to a health outcome. Social determinants of health articles are included, so the database is relevant for many different areas, including social work.

Embase This link opens in a new window
EMBASE contains references to journal articles in biomedicine. The references consist of authors, title, journal data, abstract and keywords. EMBASE contains European literature, and coverage in the field of drug research, pharmacology and pharmaceutics. The database can be searched back to 1974.
CINAHL This link opens in a new window
Nursing and Health Literature.
CINAHL Abstracting and Indexing Database
Nurses, allied health professionals, researchers, nurse educators and students depend on the CINAHL Database to research their subject areas from this authoritative index of nursing and allied health journals. CINAHL indexes the top nursing and allied health literature available including nursing journals and publications from the National League for Nursing and the American Nurses Association. CINAHL also includes rigorous curation and indexing of open access (OA) journals, which has resulted in a growing collection of 1,446 active global OA journals.  Once validated and certified for inclusion, these OA journals are treated with high-quality subject indexing and sophisticated, precise/accurate full-text linking.
Subject Headings
CINAHL Subject Headings help users effectively search and retrieve information and follow the structure of the Medical Subject headings (MeSH) used by the National Library of Medicine. These Subject Headings help researchers find new concepts, including COVID-19, social distancing and vaping as well as local terminology.
Content Includes
3,814 active indexed and abstracted journals
3,461 active peer-reviewed indexed and abstracted journals
1,312 journals with searchable cited references
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.
PTSDpubs (formerly PILOTS) This link opens in a new window
From the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Databases for Specific Populations

Child Care & Early Education Research Connections
Child Care and Early Education Research Connections (Research Connections) is an online library of research relevant to the work of child care and early education (CCEE) policymakers, consultants, professionals supporting the CCEE workforce, and researchers
Child Welfare Information Gateway
Provides access to print and electronic publications covering a wide range of topics from prevention to permanency, including child welfare, child abuse and neglect, adoption, search and reunion, and more. Use the "Library Search" feature to find citations to journal articles, books, and evaluation reports on these topics.

Gale OneFile: Contemporary Women's Issues This link opens in a new window
Contemporary Women's Issues provides access to global information on women's issues. It includes journals, newsletters, and research reports from non-profit groups, government and international agencies.
GenderWatch This link opens in a new window
Covering gender related issues.
LGBTQ+ Life This link opens in a new window
Covers journals, magazines, newspapers, and books related to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual studies.
Military & Government Collection This link opens in a new window
Military & Government Collection provides access to periodicals, academic journals and other content pertinent to all branches of the military.

Other Social Science Databases

HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
HeinOnline is an online product with pages of legal history available in an online, fully-searchable, image-based format. HeinOnline provides coverage from law and law-related periodicals. It also contains the Congressional Record Bound volumes in entirety, complete coverage of the U.S. Reports back to 1754.
Social Science Research Network This link opens in a new window
Social Science Research Network (SSRN) is composed of a number of specialized research networks in the social sciences. Topics covered by networks include accounting, economics, financial economics, legal scholarship, and management.
Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Covers the literature of Sociology. Via ProQuest.

The databases listed below are on the EBSCOhost platform:

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Covers a wide range of scholarly and popular sources. Via EBSCOhost.
Criminal Justice Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Covering the literature of criminal justice and criminology. Via EBSCOhost.
ERIC [via EBSCOhost] This link opens in a new window
Contains records for research reports, conference papers, teaching guides, books, and journal articles relating to the practice of education. 1966-present.
Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection This link opens in a new window
Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection includes full-text journals covering topics in emotional and behavioral characteristics, psychiatry & psychology, mental processes, anthropology, and observational and experimental methods.

Cited Reference Searching

Use these databases and websites to search for articles that cite a specific article. This is a good way to identify responses to articles, follow-up studies, etc.

APA PsycInfo This link opens in a new window
To search for a cited reference by a cited author, the cited title of a journal article or report, the cited title of a journal, a cited date, or some element in all citation fields (such as a publisher or the name of a university). Click on Cited References at the top of the PsycINFO search page.
Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Google Scholar is a search engine for scholarly literature. It covers many disciplines and types of sources. Use the Cited By links to find sources that cite a specific source.
Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Includes science and social science journals, limited social work coverage, broader coverage on health, substance abuse, etc.

Web of Science LibGuide. Explore the research on a subject PDF. Web of Science Taining portal
Data Citation Index Video

Ten Finding Tips

In addition to Library Search and talking with Subject Librarians, use the library research guides (or LibGuides) and databases and resources listed on this page to search and identify journal articles, books, book chapters and other publications in Social Work and related fields.

Use all relevant terms or keywords and, if available, the database controlled vocabulary or indexing and cataloging terms ( thesaurus, subject headings, descriptors) in advanced search. Subject dictionaries, thesauri, and Credo Reference can help identify concepts and words for searching. These guides maybe useful:

Social Work topics keywords prepared by a Washington University librarian.
Examples: Abuse/Domestic Violence; Addiction; Ages; Barriers; Diversity; Homeless; Housing;; Police Violence; Poverty; Social Determinants of Health;
Topics in APA PsycInfo of Relevance to Social Work
APAPsycInfo uses the APA Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms. APA Publishing Training video.
PubMed has Automatic Term Mapping, matching user terms to the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)
Topic-Specific PubMed Queries provide useful MeSH and keywords for select topics, including healthcare disparities, and population health, electronic health records.
Web of Science has "Social Work" as a subject category and micro topics such as Homeless and Intimate Partner Violence. Browse and search meso and micro subjects/ Download the 2024 schema. Download the Micro-topics updates Learn more about topics schema
Subject Headings for Social Work or search the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)
External library guide to subject headings with links to the PDF of LCSH by letter.
Science.gov Topic Pages (Science.gov searches over 60 databases and over 2,200 scientific websites)
Social Determinants of Health, Health Disparities, and Health Equity guide

Search one concept at a time and then combine them using "AND" or "OR". Most databases automatically add "AND" between terms so AND may not be needed.

Parentheses can be used to specify the search order for operators in a search string. If not, for example, in ProQuest and Web of Science, the order is PRE, NEAR, AND, OR, NOT.
Watch Build Better Searches in Web of Science (5 min), to know how to use truncation, operators, parentheses (to set order for operators) and proximity. These functions are similar for other databases.
Be aware that Google operators work differently than those in library databases.

Use database fields and filters, such as Date, Peer-Reviewed, Source Type, and Methodology to focus and narrow your search.
Check documentation to see which fields are mandatory or required to appear in every record. In APA PsycINFO, for example, the only required fields in every record are title, abstract, author, keywords, publication date, publication type, release date, unique identifier. PubMed check tags appearing in nearly all indexed records include human, animal, male, female, pregnancy, age. These tags are ignored if not mentioned in the article.
Geographic location: For library catalogs, use location field and the geographic subject headings. For APA PsycINFO search in geographic location field. For ERIC, there are location, laws, polices and programs and assessment and surveys identifiers.
Use the How to apply methodology filters and Find Empirical and Evidence-Base Articles guides.
Use database guides, tutorials, search tips, tools, and help to efficiently search, filter, save/download, cite and more.

Main database platform guides: ProQuest, EBSCOhost, CINAHL(EBSCO), Embase, Web of Science, Web of science Help documentation, Web of Science AI enabled topic and keywords search, Gale, ERIC, GovInfo,
PubMed, PubMed publication types; How PubMed Works; Searching when MeSH changes
- The EBSCOhost libguide covers the upcoming new platform. For the existing platform, view the 4 minute video, but note that the default shown is the basic search, whereas the default at Temple is the advanced search.
  Advanced Searching on EBSCOhost.
- APA PsycInfo Beginner Search video tutorial; APA PsycInfo Advanced Search
JSTOR Text Analyzer uses the text of your document to suggest more articles.
For Temple Libraries tutorials and upcoming workshops: Enter the database name or other search term in Library Search and look at results under Library Website.
Use library research guides for courses and subjects to identify relevant databases and resources.
Google Search Tips: List of Operators and Google Search help
This library guide from McGill University has operators and searching tips for many databases
https://libraryguides.mcgill.ca/knowledge-syntheses/search-tips

Follow linkages, such as subject, keyword, author, title or series, organization links and links to Similar Titles, Citations or Cited By, References, and More Like This.

Use tools like Google Scholar and Web of Science Cited Reference Search
Learn more with our Chasing Citation guide and Citation Chasing Video Tutorial

Register/Create account and login to save your search history and create alerts.
Select the Find Full Text links to get the entire source for non-full text indexing databases.
Link Google Scholar to Temple libraries to get full text within our collections.
To save time, search the entire ProQuest Social Sciences Premium collection

Some database specific advanced filtering capability and thesaurus terms may not be available.
For the broadest ProQuest platform wide search, use ProQuest Academic One , which includes ProQuest Central (nearly all disciplines/subjects and different media types)

Use Browzine to browse and read scholarly articles in Social Work journals.
To create an account with the Browzine App, select Temple University and login with your TU AccesNet ID.
Target Core Journals in Social Work and search all relevant databases.

Use Library Search and Ulrich's Periodical Directory to look up journal titles and the databases to access them.
Use Scimago Journal & Country Rank or Web of Science Journal Citation Reports to view rankings and journals impact factor.

Search for Ebooks

Library Search will find ebooks from all of the sources to which Temple has access. You can search title words, topics, subjects and author names. The results are first displayed by "Relevance", but you can order the results by date.

Library Search Tips:

Use the filters along the left hand side of the results OR use advanced search fields to make the search more specific.
Use Subclass HV, Library of Congress (LC) Classification (Call Numbers) for Social Work
- Counseling BF636.5-7
- Social Work Subclass HV
  - Social Policy HV13-19
  - Specific problems and services to specific groups HV697-3024
  - Ethnic and racial minorities HV3176-3199; Families HV697-700.7; Group Work HV45
  - Poverty, low-income, homelessness HV1-4630
  - Practice of social work, including casework HV43-435
- Social Services HV40-69
- Social Welfare Subclass HV
- General Social Problems Subclass HN
- Social Welfare Problems and Social Action Subclass HN
- Criminology HV6001-7220
- Criminal Justice Issues HV6001-9960
- Penal & Related Institutions HV8301-9920
Search for LC Subject Headings (LCSH) to use in Library Search or, from the result for Books & Media Library Search, select linked terms that appear in the subject field.
- Subject Headings for Social Work
- Demographic/ethnic group terms