WISER Social Sciences Information sources for education, sociology and applied social sciences Louise Clarke & Judy Reading Oxford University Library Services

Session Overview Accessing electronic resources Cambridge Scientific Abstracts for sociologists and applied social scientists British Education Index and ERIC Subject searching on OLIS Other key resources

Accessing electronic resources OxLIP (Oxford Libraries Information Platform) OxLIP  Finding aids – catalogues, abstracting and indexing services Full-text – journal articles, official documents, newspapers, ebooks Tools for current awareness – digests, theses, alerting services Datasets and statistics Reference works

Accessing electronic resources Some resources require a password or offer password access when you are off campus. A number of publishers have agreed to a single password system called Athens  Registration  MyAthens For off campus access to non-password resources register for the VPN or Dial-up 

CSA: ASSIA Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA) Cambridge Scientific Abstracts ASSIA (Applied Social Sciences Indexes and Abstracts) Indexes and abstracts 650 journals 1987 onwards Emphasis upon practical applications of social science and health research

CSA: Sociological Abstracts Sociological Abstracts Indexes and abstracts over 1,800 journals Also provides abstracts of selected books, book chapters, dissertations, and conference papers 1953 onwards Emphasis is on covering the international literature in sociology & related disciplines

CSA: Other databases Social Services Abstracts  current research focused on social work and human sciences from over 1,600 serials beginning 1980 National Criminal Justice Reference Service Abstracts  U.S. and international publications from 1972 Worldwide Political Science Abstracts  1,500 serials in political science from 1975 Education Resources Information Center (ERIC)  educational-related materials from 1966 onwards

CSA: Database records TI = title AB = abstract AU = author  Use the database author index (under search tools) to find alternative forms of the authors name DE = descriptors  Use the database thesaurus (under search tools) to find descriptors. KW = keywords  Searches the TI, AB, DE and ID (identifiers) fields SO = source  Look in the serials source list for abbreviated journal title

CSA: Combining search terms Use and to narrow a search and retrieve records containing all search terms Use or to broaden a search and retrieve records containing any of the search terms Use not to narrow search and retrieve records excluding search terms Use near to find terms within 10 words of each other or specify within ‘x’ Use ( ) to group terms/define relationships Otherwise searches for terms as a phrase

CSA: Search tips Use * to truncate a search term  feminis* retrieves feminist, feminists, feminism  behavi*r retrieves behaviour and behavior Use ? to find alternative spellings  wom?n for women and woman If searching for acronyms include both the acronym and the terms spelt in full  ESRC or (Economic and Social Research Council) Click on ‘help & support’ for online help, or ask a librarian.

CSA: Cited reference linking Some databases in CSA, e.g. Sociological Abstracts, contain links to cited references  locate current research based on earlier research  find out how many times, and where, a publication is being cited  identify who is referencing a particular paper  explore how a particular research topic is being used to support other research  analyze the impact of a publication on other research in the field  track the history of a research idea  keep track of your own research

CSA: Scholar profiles Records from selected CSA Social Science databases that describe articles published after 2000, have been matched to Scholar profiles to provide verified links between articles and authors Scholar profiles include contact information, education, research interests, home page, and verified publication lists as available Covers 1,500 US and Canadian Universities

British Education Index Indexes journal articles, theses and web documents. Most British journals and major international journals The database covers all aspects and fields of education from preschool to adult and higher education Material indexed very easily available in the UK – most in Oxford University libraries See also other services from British Education IndexBritish Education Index

ERIC Available from various platforms including Firstsearch Contains annotated references to educational materials issued in the monthly Resources in Education (RIE) and to journal articles issued in the monthly Current Index to Journals in Education (CIJE). Much more content than the BEI but journals indexed are less likely to be available here Includes full-text papers and reports available online Produced in the US but does have international coverage

Subject searching on OLIS OLIS (Oxford Libraries’ catalogue) offers a subject index - Library of Congress Subject Headings Look at the index terms attached to a resource you know is relevant to get you started Use the browse option to identify relevant subject terms – follow cross-references Use the keyword options to combine those terms Use the web version of the catalogue if you want to mark and print or records identified OLIS does not index journals – you need to use a journal index to identify articles and then locate the journal title in OLIS.

Official papers and web resources Useful guidance is available from the Bodleian Official Papers webpage tions.html tions.html For education, see the Educational Studies website For the applied social sciences, two helpful websites are:  Social Care Online  Social Policy Digest OXLIP has links to key resources including UKOP OXLIP

Other key resources SCOPUS New research service from Elsevier World’s largest abstracts database of over 15,000 titles from 4,000 publishers Records from 1966 onwards The TOUR icon will link you to full-text

Other key resources ISI Web of Knowledge Abstracts of 1,700 journals from Index of citations from Reports on articles cited, other papers using the same citations, and later citations of the paper Citations create a “web of knowledge”

Other key resources International Bibliography of the Social Sciences  Economics  Political Science  Sociology  Anthropology 1951 – present Abstracts included for most articles from

Other key resources PsychINFO Index and abstracts of 1,900 journals 1872 onwards Covers psychology and related disciplines WebSPIRS database

Other key resources TDNet: A system for managing Oxford’s access to electronic journals TDNet Current journals from major publisher sites (e.g., Science Direct, Ingenta) ‘Delayed’ publication journals from JSTOR and Project MUSE LexisNexis Electronic newspapers LexisNexis  To restrict your search to a specific newspaper; in the additional terms search box use the prefix PUB followed by the term in brackets, e.g. PUB (Financial Times)

Other key resources Don’t forget Library staff are here to help you – you are welcome to make an appointment for assistance: Contacts: Look at the other training available from OULS – see

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