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 SOC 103: LOGIC & METHODS OF SOCIAL INQUIRY
Library Guide
Winter Quarter 2005

The following guide is meant to assist you in the two parts of your assignment: (a) formulating a hypothesis and (b) preparing a literature review.

Note: You are invited at any time to consult with a librarian at the Reference Desk in McHenry Library if you can't find what you are looking for.

Step 1: Hypothesis.
Take a few minutes to read about your topic in a sociology encyclopedia; this is an effective and time saving first step in the research process. Encyclopedias can help you define unfamiliar terms, understand the parameters of current debate in a particular area of research, and provide you with preliminary bibliography on the subject.

Note: The social science encyclopedias listed below will be very heavily used by your class, so please be considerate to your colleagues and return the volumes to the reference shelf after you have used them. Thanks.

The following are located on the Reference shelves behind the McHenry Reference Desk.

International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences. (Ref H41 I58 2001) 26 vol. set, best place to begin; use the index for keywords related to your topic. Abstracts available online. Link through the "Fast Find" search box on the Library's "Research" page: http://library.ucsc.edu/research.html.

International Encyclopedia of Sociology (Ref HM17 I54 1995, volumes 1&2.)

Encyclopedia of Sociology (Ref HM 17 E5 2000, volumes 1-5.)

Dictionaries of Sociology There are several good dictionaries located on the reference shelves at Ref HM 17. . .if you don't understand a term, look it up.

Step 2: Literature Review.
Look for published scholarly research on your topic. This means putting your hands on journal articles that basically include (1) a research hypothesis (2) a review of the literature on the topic (3) a description of the methodology used to gather and analyze data (4) a description of the research conducted and (5) the conclusions drawn.

Have a look at the "How to...Do Research in the Library," pages on the Library's Web site: http://library.ucsc.edu/ref/howto/
See especially "...Find a Book", "...Find Journal Articles," "...Write a Literatue Review," and "...Use UCeLinks."

Note: Our library does not own everything listed in these databases.Therefore:
  • Find articles by using keyword searches in the databases;
  • Check to see if UCSC owns the book or journal title in the citation by doing a "Title/Periodical title" search in CRUZCAT, the catalog record will tell you if we have print or online access to the articles in the journals; you can also click on " UCeLinks" next to the article citation to see if our library owns a print or electronic version of an article

Most frequently used databases for this assignment:
The following indexing and abstracting online services (for finding journal articles on your topic) can be accessed through the library's homepage. (http://library.ucsc.edu/) Select "Research" from the library's home page and then type the name of the database in the "Fast Find" search window. There are many other subject specific databases to search, see a reference librarian for assistance.

Sociological Abstracts (Citations for articles from over 2,600 journals, books, conference papers, and dissertations in sociology and related disciplines.)

ERIC Database (Citations to education literature, full-text available after 1997, see librarian.)) Search commands are similar to SocAbs.

PsycInfo (Covers journal articles and reports in psychology, psychiatry and related disciplines.) Search commands are similar to SocAbs.

InfoTrac Expanded Academic ASAP (Articles from both scholarly journals and popular magazines.) Good place to start for the current debate on topics.

Citation Style

Also, check out my "Sociology, A Research Guide" Web site: http://library.ucsc.edu/ref/instruction/refguides/soc/

 

Cheryl Gomez, Reference Librarian, cherylg@ucsc.edu

Contact Annette Marines (amarines[@]ucsc.edu). Last updated October 2005.

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