Guides: SWL 201: Intro to Social Work & Social Welfare: Find Sources

Forming your Search String

The more complicated your question, the less likely a search engine can understand it. To get the best result, identify keywords and like terms to create a search string.

Example research question: What impact does vicarious trauma have on social workers' mental health?

Keywords: Vicarious trauma, social workers, mental health

Like terms can include synonyms and also examples of your keywords. If you don't get results from searching your keywords, it doesn't mean that the research doesn't exist. It could mean that the researcher used different language to describe the same topic

Social workers: social worker, caseworker
Vicarious trauma: secondary traumatic stress
Mental health: well-being

Search strings connect your keywords and like terms together for the best results.

Too many results? Use AND to narrow results

social workers AND vicarious trauma AND mental health

Too few results? Use OR to broaden results

social workers OR caseworker AND vicarious trauma OR secondary traumatic stress AND mental health OR well-being

students reading in front of periodical display

Also known as peer-reviewed articles, scholarly articles are sources that are:

written by experts in the field
reviewed by other experts in the field (hence the peer-reviewed)
intended for an academic audience

While you can find scholarly articles through general search engines, databases contain a feature where you can narrow your results to only scholarly articles.

Find Subject-Specific Articles:

SocINDEX with Full Text This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive sociology research database that contains full text for more than 630 journals and magazines, as well as books, monographs, and conference papers. Covers various areas of study including gender studies, criminal justice, social psychology, racial studies, religion and social work.

Find Articles in Multidisciplinary Databases:

Academic Search Ultimate This link opens in a new window
Academic Search Ultimate offers access to resources cited in key subject indexes. The combination of academic journals, magazines, periodicals, reports, books and videos meets the needs of scholars in virtually every discipline ranging from astronomy, anthropology, biomedicine, engineering, health, law and literacy to mathematics, pharmacology, women’s studies, zoology and more.
Academic OneFile This link opens in a new window
Provides millions of articles from over 17,000 scholarly journals and other authoritative sources—including thousands of podcasts and transcripts from NPR and CNN as well as videos from BBC Worldwide Learning. Includes extensive coverage in key subject areas such as biology, chemistry, economics, environmental science, history, marketing, political science, and psychology.

Student thumbing through a book in front of library stacks

Books and eBooks often provide a broader overview and cover more information than a scholarly journal article.

You don't need to read an entire book to use it in your research. Use the index at the back of a book to find the information you need.

To find books and eBooks, you can either:

Search the NOBLE catalog

NOBLE Catalog Search
Search the Jenks Library catalog for books, eBooks, audiobooks, scores, etc.

Browse the stacks for a book related to your topic

GF Human Ecology (Anthropogeography)

GN Anthropology

H Social Sciences - General

HM Sociology (General & Theoretical)

HN Social History, Social Problems, Social Reform

HQ Family, Marriage, Women, Sexual Life

HS Societies - Secret, Benevolent, etc.

HT Communities, Classes, Races

HV1-5840 Social Work, Social & Public Welfare

HV6001-9950 Criminology, Criminal Justice

Domestic Violence

National Coalition Against Domestic Violence
The NCADV Public Policy Office collaborates with other national organizations to promote legislation and policies that serve and protect victims and survivors of domestic violence, and work to change the narrative surrounding domestic violence.
U.S. Dept of Justice | Office of Violence Against Women
Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) provides federal leadership in developing the national capacity to reduce violence against women and administer justice for and strengthen services to victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking.

Poverty

Poverty USA
Poverty USA is an initiative of CCHD and was created as an educational resource to help individuals and communities to address the root causes of poverty in America.
U.S. Census Bureau | Poverty
The Census Bureau provides poverty data from several household surveys and programs. You can find poverty estimates, learn about these surveys and programs, and get guidance on how to choose the right estimate for your needs.

AIDS

HIV.gov
To expand the visibility of timely and relevant Federal HIV policies, programs, and resources to the American public.

Suicide Prevention

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) is a voluntary health organization that gives those affected by suicide a nationwide community empowered by research, education and advocacy to take action against this leading cause of death.
Suicide Prevention Lifeline
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a leader in suicide prevention and mental health crisis care. Since its inception, the Lifeline has engaged in a variety of initiatives to improve crisis services and advance suicide prevention for all, including innovative public messaging, best practices in mental health, and groundbreaking partnerships.

Rape

RAINN
RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) is the nation's largest anti-sexual violence organization. RAINN created and operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline in partnership with more than 1,000 local sexual assault service providers across the country and operates the DoD Safe Helpline for the Department of Defense. RAINN also carries out programs to prevent sexual violence, help survivors, and ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice.

Sexual Abuse and Children

National Child Traumatic Stress Network
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) was created to raise the standard of care and increase access to services for children and families who experience or witness traumatic events.
Child Welfare Information Gateway
Child Welfare Information Gateway promotes the safety, permanency, and well-being of children, youth, and families by connecting child welfare, adoption, and related professionals as well as the public to information, resources, and tools covering topics on child welfare, child abuse and neglect, out-of-home care, adoption, and more.

Human Trafficking

Dept of Homeland Security | Blue Campaign
Blue Campaign is a national public awareness campaign, designed to educate the public, law enforcement and other industry partners to recognize the indicators of human trafficking, and how to appropriately respond to possible cases. Blue Campaign works closely with DHS Components to create general awareness training and materials for law enforcement and others to increase detection of human trafficking, and to identify victims.

Refugee Crisis

Amnesty International
Amnesty International is a global movement of more than 10 million people who take injustice personally. We are campaigning for a world where human rights are enjoyed by all.
American Immigration Council
The American Immigration Council works to strengthen America by shaping how America thinks about and acts towards immigrants and immigration and by working toward a more fair and just immigration system that opens its doors to those in need of protection and unleashes the energy and skills that immigrants bring.

If you find an article or book that you can't access, don't pay for it! Instead, submit an Interlibrary Loan request, and you'll receive articles within a few days!

Interlibrary Loan: Article & Book Request
Can't find the article or book you're looking for at Gordon? Fill out the Interlibrary Loan request form and we'll track the article or book down for you!

Are you looking for a specific article, like an article that you found referenced in a bibliography? Search for the journal in Journal Finder, linked below:

Browse Journal Finder
Find individual journals and search within specific publications.