SOC 413/CRJ 4130: Qualitative Research Methods

Trying to access library resources online? Follow the instructions on the Online Access to Library Resources page to access library databases, articles, and ebooks, both on-campus and off-campus.

Sociological Abstracts is the premier database for locating articles in the field of sociology, Sociological Abstracts indexes about 1,800 international scholarly journals in the areas of sociology, social work, and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. See the Search FAQs below for help with searching Sociological Abstracts.

Check out the library's self-paced online tutorial What Are Library Databases and Why Should I Use Them? for more info about library databases.

Black Studies Center: gateway to historical and current material for researching the past, present, and future of African-Americans, the wider African Diaspora, and Africa itself. It combines the following databases: Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience; International Index to Black Periodicals (IIBP); Chicago Defender Historical Backfile (1900-1975), and Black Literature Index (1827-1940). 

JSTOR: Journal articles from core scholarly journals in anthropology, sociology, history, and other key fields in the humanities and social sciences.

Sage Journals: Search full-text SAGE journals in sociology, communications, criminology, psychology, urban studies, and other disciplines..​

Social Sciences Abstracts: Covering the latest concepts, theories and methods from both applied and theoretical aspects of the social sciences, this database provides indexing and abstracts for the most important English-language social science journals.

Social Sciences Citation Index: A multidisciplinary database, with searchable author abstracts, covering the journal literature of the social sciences. It indexes 1,700 journals spanning 50 disciplines. Requires VPN for access.

Sociology Database: covers the international literature of sociology and social work, including related fields like social policy, social anthropology, social care, gender studies, social psychology, and population studies. 

Click here to see the full list of Mardigian Library's Sociology databases.

Check out the library's self-paced tutorial How do I search library databases? to learn the basics of database searches.

1. How do I start finding articles about my research area and my population?

• Enter your research area and population in the research box
• Example: muslim immigrants identity 
• Under Subject in the sidebar to the left of the search hits, click on More
  • ​Check the boxes besides any subjects you're interested in
  • This will also help you develop a focused research question

2. How do I focus my search to peer-reviewed articles?

•  Check the Peer-Reviewed box under the search box to focus your search hits to articles from peer-reviewed journals

3. How do I find articles about my research question?

• Identify the main ideas of your topic and use those as your search words
• Each journal article, magazine article, and newspaper article has tags assigned to it, words or shorts phrases that make them searchable - you want your search words to match those tags
• Words like influences, factors, effects, challenges are usually not used as tags - don't include them as search words
• Example: What factors influence the development of gender identity among second generation Muslim immigrants? 
  • Search: "second generation" muslim immigrants* gender identity 
    • "second generation" searches for second generation as a phrase, not separate words
    • immigrant* searches for immigrant and immigrants

4. How do I know my search words match the tags assigned to articles about my research question?

• As you scroll through the search hits, look at the Subjects (tags) assigned to the relevant articles you find, and see if they match your search words:
  • Click on Preview under the Article Title in the list of search hits
  • Look at the Subjects with which the article has been tagged - revise your search words to match those subjects
• Subjects (tags) also help you identify the specific issues around your topic and population so that you can give it direction and develop it into a focused research question