NEIU Libraries Research Guides: Sociology Research Guide: DS 101: Stockdill

Librarian Contact Information

Ashley Howdeshell
a-howdeshell@neiu.edu
773-442-4416

Library Website: https://www.neiu.edu/neiu-libraries

Introduction to Research at the NEIU Libraries

Introduction to Research at the NEIU Libraries
A resource guide that helps you start your research at NEIU Libraries.

What is a journal and a peer reviewed article?

In this video, you will learn how to evaluate the difference between scholarly journals and other kinds of periodicals, and how to describe the peer-review process.

Length: 1:24

Databases for Scholarly Research

Academic Search Ultimate This link opens in a new window
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References to articles from over 10,000 full text journals on a wide range of academic areas. Included is a searchable collection of images plus videos from the Associated Press from 1930 to the present.
Criminal Justice Database This link opens in a new window
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Full-text database with scholarly journal articles and other sources on criminology, corrections administration, criminal law, criminal justice, law enforcement, addition, family law, industrial security, and rehabilitation, 1981 to present.
Education Full Text This link opens in a new window
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Provides full text of articles from over 350 journals as far back as 1996, in addition to indexing of more than 770 periodicals dating back to 1983.
ERIC (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new window
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References to articles, ERIC documents, and more on all areas of education, 1966 to present.
International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS) This link opens in a new window
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References to journal articles, books, reviews, and selected chapters for international material on anthropology, cultural studies, economics, education, ethnology and ethnography, political science, and sociology, 1951 to present.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
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An historical, fulltext archive of core journals in the arts, humanities, social sciences, and sciences.
PAIS Index This link opens in a new window
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References to articles, books, and more on national and international political, social, and public policy issues, 1915 to present.
Politics Collection This link opens in a new window
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A combined search of ProQuest's PAIS Index, Policy File Index, Political Science Database, and Worldwide Poltical Science Abstracts
PsycInfo This link opens in a new window
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References to articles, books, and more on the psychological, social, and behavioral sciences, 1806 to present.
Social Sciences Abstracts This link opens in a new window
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Indexing and abstracts of more than 770 periodicals, nearly 700 of which are peer-reviewed. Among these are many of the most important English-language social science journals. It offers coverage dating back to 1972.
Social Services Abstracts This link opens in a new window
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References to articles and other publications on social work, human services, and related areas, 1979 to present.
Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new window
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References to articles, books, and more on sociology and related disciplines, 1952 to present.
Sociology Database This link opens in a new window
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Sociology Database covers the international literature of sociology and social work, including relevant titles from related fields such as social policy, social care, social services, social anthropology, gender studies, gerontology, social psychology and population studies. It includes hundreds of full-text scholarly journals, as well as dissertations and other sources, 1985 - current

Related Research Guides

Primary Source vs. Secondary Source

What is a primary source?

A primary source is a firsthand account of an event that happened, data from a study, or an original work and are considered to be authoritative. Here are some examples of primary sources:

Photographs of historical events
News articles
Interviews and/or oral histories
Autobiographies by historical or famous people
Letters and journals
Published essays and opinion pieces
Original works of art
Documentaries
Excerpts from radio broadcasts and podcasts
Data from studies and surveys
Poll results
Recordings of speeches, music, and other performances
Government documents about specific policies and laws
Laws (as in, the actual text of an ordinance or law)

What is a secondary source?

Secondary sources are a step removed from primary sources. Secondary sources involve analysis, synthesis, interpretation, or evaluation of primary sources. They often attempt to describe or explain primary sources. Secondary sources include:

Essays analyzing novels, works of art, and other original creations
Textbook passages discussing specific concepts, events, and experiments
Biographies of historical and famous people
Books about specific events, concepts, movements, and works
Political commentary
Magazine articles
Scholarly articles that interpret original data (the raw data would be a primary source)
Blog or website posts describing or interpreting an event or person

Recommended Web Resources for Citations

Purdue OWL // Purdue Writing Lab - The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University houses writing resources and instructional material as a free service of the Writing Lab at Purdue. Students, members of the community, and users worldwide will find information to assist with many writing projects.
ZoteroBib - ZoteroBib helps you build a bibliography instantly from any computer or device, without creating an account or installing any software. It’s brought to you by the team behind Zotero, the powerful open-source research tool recommended by thousands of universities worldwide, so you can trust it to help you seamlessly add sources and produce perfect bibliographies. If you need to reuse sources across multiple projects or build a shared research library, we recommend using Zotero instead.
Zotero | Your personal research assistant - Zotero is a free and open-source reference management software to manage bibliographic data and related research materials.

Sociology Research Guide