Social Welfare Policies and Services I: SSW 5005

 Depending on the social problem you choose to analyze there are many other possible resources you could search. For example: if your choice is education-related you may want to search in the database ERIC, or in other education-specific databases. See the full listing of library databases by subject to locate the ones that are most appropriate for your specific topic.

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.

1. 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

2. 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.

3. 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.
4. 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

5. 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

6. Register/Create account and login to save your search history and create alerts.
    
7. 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.
    
8. 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)

9. 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.
    
10. 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.

Can't Locate Your Article Online?

• Use thelink found in the Library Search or the button available from most other databases to locate the entire article online.
• If your article is not available in print or via another research database, request it via ILLiad (interlibrary loan).