In my office, BL129 (best to make an appointment)
By email: kmknapp@salisbury.edu
By IM: paisleyr on Yahoo or kristaknapp on google talk
At the Research Services Desk: Monday 8-10am, Wednesday 8-10am, Thursday 10-12pm, Friday 8-10am

Background/Statistical Information:

Try the following sources for background and/or statistical information:

Scholarly V. Popular Sources: A Showdown!

Here are the basics: (Check out this handy dandy chart for more information!)

Popular Magazines/Newspapers:

glossy, pretty pages with lots of advertisements and pictures
written by hired reporters for a general audience
short, easily read articles

Scholarly Journals:

somewhat dull looking - very few pictures or advertisements
written by experts in the field and reviewed by other scholars before publication
long articles with citations and bibliographies at the end

Why can't you just use Wikipedia to get your information?

Wikipedia can be useful for some research, especially popular culture topics, and particularly when the entries are well-documented with citations. However, it should NEVER be cited in an academic paper. We have so many authoritative, high-quality resources available in the library and accessible online, that you have no excuse not to use them.

If you need background information on Sociology topics, try a reference tool.

And to further drive home my point about Wikipedia not being a valid source, please enjoy this clip from the Colbert Report. Trust me, it's really amusing!

Why should you use the library and not just use Google to find some good websites?

Most of the time, scholarly publications are not available to the general public, nor are they available for free on the internet. Individuals or organizations (such as a library) subscribe to these publications. Because subscriptions are expensive, many choose to access this content through libraries.

Often, content from scholarly journals is indexed in databases that the library subscribes to. The content is on the web, but it is not accessible unless you are affiliated with the institution that is subscribing. It isn’t the same thing as just finding a website through a regular Google search. Sometimes the full text of the article is available through the database; other times it is only a citation to the article and you will need to find the print version of the article in the library or order the article through interlibrary loan if we don’t subscribe to it.

So, basically what I'm saying is that the only way you can access this scholarly information for free is by using the library databases!

Finding articles:

We have several databases you can use to search for journal, magazine, or newspaper articles. Some of them only give a citation to the article, and some have the full-text. Here is a list of databases you might want to try. WARNING: these links will only work from on campus. From off campus, access databases through Research Port.

MULTIDISCIPLINARY & NEWSPAPERS:

Academic Search Complete - a multidisciplinary database from EBSCO with a mix of scholarly and popular resources, a lot of full-text and Find It links when there is no full-text available.
This is a great place to start your research. AND, the EBSCO databases can be searched simultaneously. Click here to see how!
JSTOR - scholarly full-text articles; the newest documents are 3-5 years old. Several Sociology journals are included!
Lexis-Nexis Academic - this database contains full-text world news, legal and business information. This is a great source for international newspapers!
National Newspapers - a collection of full-text major newspapers including The New York Times and Washington Post.

SUBJECT-SPECIFIC:

Columbia International Affairs Online - full text theory, research, and case studies on international affairs.
Contemporary Women's Issues - abstracts for articles and books on women's issues. Click "See more details for locating this item" to get to the Find it Button.
PsycINFO - the gold standard database for psychology and related fields.
Social Sciences Abstracts - articles and citations for interdisciplinary fields such as addiction studies, anthropology, corrections, economics, gender studies, gerontology, minority studies, political sciences, psychology, sociology, and more
Women and Social Movements - a resource for students and scholars of U.S. history and
U.S. women's history. Organized around the history of women in social movements in
the U.S. between 1600 and 2000.

WHAT DOES THAT CUTE LITTLE FIND IT BUTTON DO, ANYWAY?

It's a bit like magic, really. The Find It button does three things:

Looks in all of our databases to see if the document you want is available full-text in another of our databases. If so, it links you to it!
Links you to the library catalog when we have the item you want in print or microform.
Links you to ILLiad (interlibrary loan) so you can borrow the item from another library if we don't have access electronically or in print.

The Find It button is YOUR FRIEND!!!

Citing your work:

Plagiarism is not cool. Of course you want to make sure you give proper credit to any source that you use to write your papers, whether you directly quote or paraphrase. This guide helps students understand what plagiarism is and how to avoid it.

Citation Help:

Dr. McEntee's page on In-text Citations
Dr. McEntee's page on References
Style Guide from the American Sociological Association
Style Guide from the Online Writing Lab at Purdue

This page was created 11/6/08 by the liaison to Sociology, Krista Knapp.