Library Resources for Social Work: Databases
Writing a Literature Review?
Read The New Social Worker's Considerations in Writing a Literature Review
Watch Literature Reviews: An Overview for Graduate Students
See GVSU Libraries Researching for the Literature Review Tutorial
Finding Articles
Databases allow you to look for articles. How do ou identify a scholarly article? Check out this cool page! Databases usually have a citation (information about an article such as the title, author, name of the journal or magazine the article appeared in, volume and issue, date, and pages) and sometimes they will also contain an abstract, or summary, of the article.
Databases also often have information about other types of resources - books, essays or chapters, government documents, etc.
Some databases will also have the articles themselves (called the full text of the article). When that happens, you should see a link to an HTML or PDF document. If you do not see a link, click on the "Get it at GVSU" button.
Behavioral
- Ethnic NewsWatchThe database focus is on African American, American Indian, Asian American, and U.S. Latino publications, though periodicals from many other minority groups are also included.
- GenderWatchProvides authoritative historical and current perspectives on the evolution of gender roles as they affect both men and women.
- PsycARTICLESA database of full-text articles from journals published by the American Psychological Association, the APA Educational Publishing Foundation, the Canadian Psychological Association, and Hogrefe Publishing Group.
- REHABDATAThe leading literature database on disability and rehabilitation.
Social Work Databases
Below I've listed databases specific to social work, social services, or social sciences; keep in mind that depending on your topic, databases in other disciplines might be useful. In order to see a list of subjects, go to the library homepage, then click 'databases'.
- Social Services AbstractsFeatures research focused on social work, human services, and related areas, including social welfare, social policy, and community development. Includes records for journal articles, dissertations, and citations to book reviews from 1980 to present.
- Social Work AbstractsContains information on the fields of social work and human services (including theory and practice) and social issues and problems from 1977 to present.
- SocINDEX with Full TextOffers comprehensive coverage of sociology, encompassing all sub-disciplines and closely related areas of study.
- Sage Journals This link opens in a new windowProvides full-text access to very useful Social Sciences journals.
- Social Sciences Citation IndexFind journal articles in the social sciences. Over 50 different subject areas covered including: anthropology, history, law, philosophy, political science, psychology, and social work. Use the citation maps feature to find out who has been citing an article. 1956-present.
- Sociological AbstractsInternational literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences.
Other Useful Databases
- Academic Search UltimateThis is a great place to start if you aren't sure where to begin as it covers a wide range of subject areas-- everything from education to population studies Academic Search Premier is a "mega" database designed especially for higher education. It indexes and abstracts more than 8,000 journals, of which more than 85% are peer-reviewed and over 55% are full text. Over 81% of the full text journals are peer-reviewed.
- ERICERIC provides access to Education related journal articles, conferences, meetings, government documents, theses, dissertations, reports, audiovisual media, bibliographies, directories, and books. This will be useful for those of you who are interested in School Social Work.
- PsycinfoPsycINFO, produced by the American Psychological Association, with over 2.5 million records (as of 2008), "is the comprehensive international database of psychology." Covers 1887 to the present. Updated weekly.
- Academic Video OnlineStreaming videos on many topics.
- Films on DemandStreaming videos on many topics.
Multidisciplinary Databases
- Science DirectFind articles, books, and reference materials in all areas of science, technology and medicine. 1823-present.
- Web of ScienceMultidisciplinary database - includes Social Science Citation Index. Great link for compiling literature reviews.
Questions? Ask Me!
Tests, Psychosocial
These databases do not contain copies of tests, only reviews.
- HAPI (Health & Psychosocial Instruments)HAPI (Health and Psychosocial Instruments) includes information on tools for clinicians and where to find them. It covers such tools as questionnaires, interview schedules, tests, checklists, rating and other scales, coding schemes, and projective techniques in the areas of health sciences, psychology and social sciences. There are ten concurrent users for this database.
- Last Updated: Jan 9, 2025 10:18 AM
- URL: https://libguides.gvsu.edu/socialwork
