Check out UNLV Library's Quick Search!
How Quick Search is similar to Google
How Quick Search is superior to Google
Assignment #1: Let's say you want to focus on: parents divorcing when you were an adolescent
You may want to try the following keywords on Quick Search & other databases:
divorce AND adolescents
divorce AND teenagers
parents AND divorce AND effects AND children (you may also want to change children to adolescents/teenagers)
and be sure to try adding the theories you are discussing in class, such as systems theory, psychodynamic theory, etc.
Assignment #2: As you are searching the databases for scholarly articles--try a variety of keywords and synonyms. Below are a few examples:
**Remember to search a wide range of keywords and synonyms
Good for: Selecting from a list of EBSCO databases to use for researching various subjects Contains: Database descriptions and links
Good for: Researching social gerontology, health care, public policy, employment, and consumer issues.
Contains: Abstracts.
Dates covered: 1978-present.
Good for: Researching child development and adolescent studies.
Contains: Current and historical scholarly literature.
Good for: Dissertations and theses.
Contains: Citations, abstracts, and full text of dissertations and theses.
Dates covered: Citations from 1861, abstracts from 1980 for dissertations and 1988 for theses, full text from 1996 for UNLV items and 1997 for most others.
Good for: Researching family science, human ecology, human development, and social welfare.
Contains: Journal articles.
Dates covered: 1970-present.
Good for: Finding abstracts of research in social work, human services, social policy, and community development.
Contains: Abstracts of published scholarship.
Dates covered: 1979-present.
Good for: Finding professional journal articles about social work
Contains: Journal articles.
Dates covered: 1977-present.
Good for: Researching sociology and related disciplines.
Contains: Index to literature.
Dates covered: 1895-present.
Good for: Researching contemporary sociology, ethnic studies, gender studies, social theory, the sociology of sport, and the sociology of work.
Contains: Journals.
Dates covered: 1987-present.
Good for: Conducting academic research on all subjects.
Contains: Journal, magazine, and newspaper articles.
What is Google Scholar?
Google Scholar searches for scholarly materials such as peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from broad areas of research. Google Scholar searches a variety of undisclosed academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as scholarly articles available across the web. The full text of many items is freely available online, although in some instances abstracts with links to pay-per-view document delivery services are displayed.
A literature review asks: What do we know - or not know - about this particular issue/ topic/ subject?
How well you answer this question depends upon:
Good for: Saving, organizing and formatting citations in your personal database.
Contains: Bibliography manager.
RefWorks is a web-based bibliographic software package that enables you to:
From APA, color-coded explanation of journal, book, and book chapter references (pdf).
Other Resources:
From APA: Detailed instructions and examples from the 7th edition
from APA
Provides a DOI for an article citation when one is available.
Explains when to give credit to another person for their intellectual work (and how to do it correctly). Look for the "Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing" section on the left for examples of each.
Example:
Ruxton, C. (2016). Tea: Hydration and other health benefits. Primary Health Care, 26(8), 34-42. https://doi.org/10.7748/phc.2016.e1162
Image Credit: Victoria University
Government information focusing on social work-related topics is abundant. You can also use Google to find government information. After you type in your keywords, then type in site:.gov after the keywords to limit to only government information.
Example: foster care site:.gov
Example: "child maltreatment" statistics site:.gov
Below are some general federal & state agency websites to get you started:
US Health & Human Services--ASPE--Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning & Evaluation
SAMHSA Data & Statistics (Substance Abuse/Mental Health)
