Reference and Research Help
Databases Useful for Conducting Social Science Literature Research
Core Social Science Journal Literature Databases
- Description: AnthroSource is an online resource serving the research, teaching, and professional needs of anthropologists. Developed by the American Anthropological Association (AAA), AnthroSource brings 100 years of anthropological material online.
- Date Coverage: Late 19th Century-present
- Full Text: Partial
- Help: http://www.anthrosource.net/help
- Free or Licensed: Partially free
- Description: EconLit indexes and abstracts more than 300 scholarly English language periodicals and books in the field of economics.
- Date Coverage: 1969- (updated monthly)
- Full Text: Some
- Help: http://www.library.wisc.edu/Q/cambridge.htm
- Free or Licensed: Licensed for UW-Madison
SocINDEX with Full Text (EBSCO)
- Description: SocINDEX with Full Text includes full text for 397 "core coverage" sociology journals dating back to 1908 and 150 "priority coverage" journals. It also includes full text for more than 720 books and 6,743 conference papers. Abstracts for more than 800 journals are available back to 1895. In addition, SocINDEX with Full Text features more than 10,000 Author Profiles covering the most prolific, most cited, and most frequently searched for authors in the database. The database encompasses all sub-disciplines of sociology and closely related areas of study.
- Date Coverage: 1895 - Present (Update schedule unknown)
- Full Text: Yes
- Help: http://www.library.wisc.edu/Q/ebscoweb.htm
- Free or Licensed: Licensed for UW-Madison
- Description: Social Sciences Full Text indexes more than 415 key periodicals in the fields of economics, politics and foreign affairs, public administration, public health, sociology, criminology, environmental and urban studies, psychology and anthropology. Feature articles are indexed, as are interviews, obituaries, biographies, and book reviews. There are abstracts beginning with 1994. Full-text articles from 112 journals have been added beginning with 1995.
- Date Coverage: 1983- (updated monthly)
- Full Text: Many articles
- Help: http://www.library.wisc.edu/Q/wilson.htm
- Free or Licensed: Licensed for UW-Madison
- Description: The Sociological Abstracts database indexes and abstracts 2,000 worldwide journals in sociology. Relevant dissertations have been added since 1986. Also included is the Social Planning Policy and Development Abstracts (SOPODA) database, which covers applied sociology journal article abstracts since 1980. Formerly called Sociofile.
- Date Coverage: 1963- (updated triannually)
- Full Text: Some articles
- Help: http://www.library.wisc.edu/Q/cambridge.htm
- Free or Licensed: Licensed for UW-Madison
- Description: The Web of Knowledge is a combination of three databases: Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index. It indexes more than 8,000 peer-reviewed journals, providing complete bibliographic data and author abstracts. Every item of significance is listed: articles, reviews, letters, notes, corrections, and editorials. In addition to access by author, title, and institution, it is also possible to search by cited authors and to find articles sharing one or more cited reference. It is possible to search the three databases independently or in any combination. Live links to electronic journals with full text are included for some publishers.
- Date Coverage: Early 1980s-present
- Full Text: No
- Help: http://www.library.wisc.edu/Q/wos.htm
- Free or Licensed: Licensed for UW-Madison
Other Important Databases
- Description: Academic Search Elite, an EBSCO database, is a general academic index that indexes almost 3,000 magazines and journals from every academic discipline and provides the full-text of more than 1,200. This resource is licensed by BadgerLink/Department of Public Instruction for use by all Wisconsin residents.
- Date Coverage: 1984- (updated daily)
- Full Text: Yes
- Help: http://www.library.wisc.edu/Q/ebscoweb.htm
- Free or Licensed: Licensed for UW-Madison
Family & Society Studies Worldwide
- Description: Family & Society Studies Worldwide database (formerly Family Studies) is the electronic version of the indexes Inventory of Marriage and Family Literature. It indexes more than 1800 journals, books, chapters, newsletters, government documents, and dissertations. It covers the educational, medical, psychological and sociological aspects of family literature.
- Date Coverage: 1970-to date (updated quarterly)
- Full Text: No
- Help: http://www.library.wisc.edu/Q/biblioli.htm
- Free or Licensed: Licensed for UW-Madison
International Bibliography of the Social Sciences
- Description: The IBSS indexes the information contained in over 2,600 social sciences journals and 6,000 books each year. Coverage includes both core and specialized material from over 100 countries in more than 90 languages in the fields of economics, political science, sociology and anthropology.
- Date Coverage: 1981- (updated quarterly)
- Full Text: No
- Help: http://www.library.wisc.edu/Q/webspirs.htm
- Free or Licensed: Licensed for UW-Madison
- Description: ProQuest has several databases covering widely ranging topics and regions. These include scholarly material (the “Research Library” which indexes more than 2000 publications), several newspaper article databases, and a dissertation database.
- Date Coverage: Various
- Full Text: Yes
- Help: http://www.library.wisc.edu/Q/proqdir.htm
- Free or Licensed: Licensed for UW-Madison
Important Sources of E-journal/Periodical Content
Social Science Research Network
- Description: Social Science Research Network (SSRN) is a world wide collaborative of over 800 leading scholars that is devoted to the rapid worldwide dissemination of social science research. It is composed of a number of specialized research networks in each of the social sciences. Each of SSRN's networks encourages the early distribution of research results by reviewing and distributing submitted abstracts and by soliciting abstracts of top quality research papers around the world. It includes NBER and CEPR reports.
- Date Coverage: 1990s-present
- Full Text: Yes
- Help: FAQ - http://ssrn.com/update/general/ssrn_faq.html
- Free or Licensed: Partially free
- Description: A complete alphabetical list of the electronic journals that UW-Madison currently has access to.
- Date Coverage: Various, depending on specific journal.
- Full Text: Yes
- Free or Licensed: In most cases, licensed for UW-Madison
- Description: JSTOR is a full-text journal database which provides access more than 400 titles in the fields of African-American studies, anthropology, Asian studies, and many more... Coverage begins with volume one of each title and continues to within 3 to 5 years of the most current issue, depending on the title.
- Date Coverage: Various
- Full Text: Yes
- Help: http://www.library.wisc.edu/Q/jstor.htm
- Free or Licensed: Licensed for UW-Madison
Important Sources of Statistics
- Description: Contains information extracted from the Census Bureau's many surveys. The most well-known is the official population census of the United States, called the decennial census. It is conducted every ten years, most recently in April 2000. During each decennial census, the Census Bureau collects data from every household in the U.S. and its territories. Besides the decennial census, the Census Bureau conducts nearly one hundred other surveys and censuses every year.
- Date Coverage: Primarily 2000-present
- Full Text: Yes
- Help: https://ask.census.gov
- Free or Licensed: Free
International Financial Statistics (IFS)
- Description: The International Financial Statistics (IFS) Online contains approximately 32,000 time series (monthly, quarterly, and annually) covering more than 200 countries and areas. IFS is a standard source of statistics on international and domestic finance, and reports, for most countries of the world, current and historical data on exchange rates, international liquidity, international banking, money and banking, interest rates, prices, production, international transactions, government accounts, and national accounts.
- Date Coverage: 1948 to date (updated monthly)
- Help: http://ifs.apdi.net/imf/help/ifshelp.htm
- Free or Licensed: Licensed for UW-Madison
- Description: The Bureau of Labor Statistics is the principal fact-finding agency for the Federal Government in the broad field of labor economics and statistics.
- Date Coverage: Variable
- Full Text: Yes
- Help: http://www.bls.gov/bls/glossary.htm // http://www.bls.gov/bls/topicsaz.htm
- Free or Licensed: Free
- Description: WISSTAT contains thousands of demographic and economic variables for the state of Wisconsin, its counties and smaller communities. The sources of the data include the U.S. Census Bureau and various State and Federal agencies.
- Date Coverage: 1960 - (updates vary)
- Full Text: Yes
- Help: http://www.wisstat.wisc.edu/Help.aspx
- Free or Licensed: Free