Reference Resources (Dictionaries, Encyclopedias)
Databases
The databases below are ones we recommend for Sociology. In these databases you'll find articles from journals, magazines, and newspapers. Some databases provide the full text of articles and other provide citations only. If only a citation is provided, use the Get it! button to see if the full text is available through another library resource. To find books on Sociology, search the library's catalog.
Remember, when searching with these databases, you can search for a phrase (include the quotation marks) like "school violence" or "school to prison pipeline" and get results that include those exact phrases. However, if you want resources that focus on those subjects, in Criminal Justice Abstracts, you can also search using these phrases as subjects (select SU from the drop-down menu to the right of the search box in Advanced Search). If you have questions about how to do this, or run into trouble with your searching, please contact me!
- Academic Search CompleteFind articles in all subject areas in over 17,000 journals and magazines, with full text for most. Updated daily. Dates vary, some as early as 1865 to present.
- SocINDEX with Full TextComprehensive index to sociology, covering 640 core journals, 530 priority, and 1420 selectively-covered journals with many books, conference papers and author profiles. Varies, some as early as 1895.
- Criminal Justice Abstracts with Full TextProvides coverage of major English-language criminology journals and books, and reports from government and nongovernmental agencies. A summary of the findings, methodology, and conclusions is provided. Covers 1968 to present.
- Encyclopedia of Activism and Social JusticeFull-text encyclopedia devoted to social activism published in 2007.
- JSTORFull-text scholarly journals in many subject areas. We have Arts & Sciences I through XV, Life Sciences, and many others; click "more" below for a full list. JSTOR has the beginning of each journal to 3, 4 or 5 years ago. How-to videos.
- Project MUSE StandardProvides full text articles of scholarly journals in the humanities and social sciences, including literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, education, political science and gender studies. Coverage dates vary by journal title. Mostly 1993 to present. How-to videos.
- U.S. Census BureauText, maps and statistical information on the U.S. population of people and businesses.
- American FactFinderU.S. Census Bureau source for population, housing, economic and geographic data and maps from the 2000 U.S. census of individuals.
- National Criminal Justice Reference SystemContains summaries of 170,000 publications including Federal, state, and local government reports, books, research reports, journal articles, and unpublished research. Subject areas include corrections, courts, crime prevention, criminology, drugs and crime, juveniles, law enforcement, statistics, technology, and victims of crime. Documents must either be written in English or have an English-language summary.
- Statistical Abstract of the United StatesU.S. government compilation of statistics on thousands of topics.
- Statistical Abstract of the WorldComprehensive summary of statistics by country on social, political, and economic conditions.
- Readers Guide RetrospectiveExplore articles in the popular press (not scholarly journals), reflecting 20th century American culture, society, science, and politics. Covers 1890 to 1982.
- EconLitThe American Economic Association electronic database listing journal articles, books, collective volume articles, dissertations, working papers, and full-text book reviews from the Journal of Economic Literature: 1969 to present.
