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SOC 3070: Social Research Methods

Subject Specific Databases

The databases you use will depend on your topic. The following links are popular databases in the areas of sociology and criminal justice:

Additional subject databases are available on the Criminal Justice Databases or Sociology Database pages.

Is My Source Scholarly? (A Checklist)

pictures of journals

Are you wondering if the article you found is scholarly? Ask youself these questions:

checkmarkIs this an article that was published in a journal? (Hint: Look near the bottom or top of the page for a journal name, volume number, issue number, year and page numbers.)

Does the article tell you where the author works (and maybe their contact details)? (Hint: Look for footnotes by the author's name.)

Is there an abstract at the beginning of the article? (A summary of the article, written by the authors.)

Does the article end with a bibliography or list of works cited? (There could also be extensive footnotes.)

Is the language in the article more technical than a typical magazine or newspaper?

Does the article's formatting look really boring? (No advertisements or glossy color pictures.)

If you answered YES to most of these questions, the article you're looking at is probably scholarly!