Databases
- SocINDEX with Full Text This link opens in a new windowProvides full text of some journal articles, and indexing and abstracts for journals, books and conference papers. Covers all sub-fields of sociology, including criminology, gender, marriage & family studies, social work, social psychology, addictions, violence, and more. Covers scholarly publications in sociology, social work, and related fields. Contains 2.3 million articles and other materials (64% in full text) with deep coverage from 1960 and some back to 1882.
- Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Scholarly literature in the sciences, health and medicine, social sciences, arts, and humanities and proceedings of international conferences, symposia, seminars, colloquia, workshops, and conventions. Includes cited reference searching across many databases. Search all databases in Web of Science (includes Medline and BIOSIS, direct link for on-campus users). Dates of coverage: 1965 to present.
- Annual Reviews This link opens in a new windowCritically reviews the most significant research literature in over 40 focused disciplines within the fields of biomedical, life, physical, and social sciences. These reviews both summarize recent scholarly advances and prompt new research activity. Excellent database of in-depth, secondary sources.
- Anthropology Plus This link opens in a new window
Citations for journal articles, reports, commentaries, and edited works, in social, cultural, physical, biological, and linguistic anthropology, ethnology, archaeology, folklore, and material culture. Includes records from Anthropological Literature (Harvard University) and the Anthropological Index (Royal Anthropological Institute). Dates of coverage: Late 19th c. to date.
- Black Studies Center This link opens in a new window
Covers the Black experience from ancient Africa to the modern day from perspectives in history, literature, political science, sociology, philosophy, music, visual arts, and religion. Includes index to Black Literature (1827-1940), Black Studies Periodical Database, and the full text backfile (1910-2010) of the influential black newspaper The Chicago Defender.
- Communication & Mass Media Complete This link opens in a new window
Scholarly journal and trade magazine articles on all aspects of communication, rhetoric, journalism, film and television studies.
- Criminal Justice Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Indexes journal articles in the areas of criminology, corrections, prisons, substance abuse and addictions, criminal law, policing, criminal investigation, probation, and parole.
- EconLit This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive index of economic literature, including journal articles, working papers, dissertations, and books. Also includes full text for hundreds of journals. Dates of coverage: 1886 to date
- Education Research Complete This link opens in a new window
Indexes journal articles, books, and conference papers covering all levels of education from early childhood to higher education, and all areas including curriculum, administration, policy, funding, testing, and related social issues. Indexes over 1,500 journals, with full text for more than 750 journals.
- Environment Complete This link opens in a new window
Covers agriculture, ecosystem ecology, energy, natural resources, pollution & waste management, environmental technology, environmental law, public policy, social impacts, urban planning, and conference papers of the North American Association of Environmental Education.
- Gender Studies Database This link opens in a new window
Covers the full spectrum of sexual diversity issues and gender-engaged scholarship inside and outside academia. Source documents include professional journals, conference papers, books, book chapters, government reports, discussion and working papers, theses and dissertations, and more. Dates of Coverage: 1972 to date
- Legal Collection This link opens in a new window
Legal Collection is a collection of respected, scholarly peer-reviewed publications including law journals, documents, and case studies. Legal Collection offers full text for nearly 250 of the world's most respected, scholarly law journals. This database provides information centered on the discipline of law and legal topics such as criminal justice, international law, federal law, organized crime, medical, labor & human resource law, ethics, the environment and much more. This database is a source for information on current issues, studies, thoughts and trends of the legal world. Dates of Coverage: 1965-
- LGBTQ+ Source This link opens in a new window
Includes the full text of more than one hundred current or historically significant Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) journals, magazines and regional newspapers, and books.
- MEDLINE (EBSCO version) This link opens in a new window
Most comprehensive source of full text for medical journals. Includes full text of nearly 1500 titles.
- PAIS Index (Public Affairs Information Service) This link opens in a new windowCovers all aspects of U.S. public policy and international affairs. Includes references to journal articles, books, government documents, grey literature, research reports and documents by NGOs, conference papers, and statistical reports. Dates of Coverage: 1915 to date
- PsycInfo This link opens in a new window
Indexes scholarly literature in the psychological, social, behavioral, and health sciences; covers journals, books, reviews, and dissertations. Dates of coverage: 1880s–present.
- Social Sciences Citation Index (via Web of Science) This link opens in a new window
Indexing and abstracts of millions of peer-reviewed articles in social science disciplines. Also includes book chapters, conference papers and other formats. Cited and citing reference searching.
- SPORTDiscus This link opens in a new window
Indexing and abstracting of articles and other publications on sport, fitness and related disciplines, with more than 240 full text journals.
- Urban Studies Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Indexes publications covering key areas of relevance to urban studies, including city and regional planning, urban affairs, community development, urban history, architecture, and more. Dates of coverage: 1973-present
- Worldwide Political Science Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Articles, book chapters, dissertations, working papers, and conference proceedings in all fields of political science, including international relations, international law, and public administration and policy. Dates of Coverage: 1975--
Basic Database Search Techniques
| Concept | Explanation | Example |
| Phrase search (quotes required) |
search for an exact phrase (most, but not all, databases use quotation marks) | “death penalty” “standardized test” “reality TV” |
| Boolean logic (for keyword searching) | use Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) for more precise searching |
See following examples |
| AND | search for records that have all of the words (narrows the search) |
race and poverty drug use and educational attainment |
| OR | search for records that have any of the words (broadens the search) |
homosexual or gay or lesbian or queer china or japan or korea |
| NOT | exclude records that have the word (narrows the search) | advertising not (TV or television) |
| Truncation | search for a root word with any ending (most, but not all, databases use an asterisk *) | adolescen* [finds adolescent, adolescents, adolescence] |
Additional Database Techniques
| Concept | Definition | Example |
| Complex Boolean Search | place search words for the same concept in the same search box (or in parentheses) |
(spous* or wife or wives or husband* or domestic partner*) and (abus* or batter* or violen*) |
| Proximity | require words to appear within a certain distance of each other n (for “near”) = words can appear in any order w (for “within”) = words must appear in specified order | poverty n4 mental health african w2 american* (n# and w# indicate the maximum number of intervening words) note: if no quotes or proximity connectors or are used, Ebsco defaults to w5 |
| Field qualification (field limiting) | require words to appear in a certain field in the database record (easy way: use dropdown menus) |
au coleman (for author field) ti racial profiling (for title field) |
| Limit (filter) | restrict search results to a subset of the database | e.g., by language, year of publication, type of publication |
| Add to folder | select or save records from search results for future action | save specified records to display, print, email, or add to bibliographic manager (e.g., RefWorks) later |
Tips for Identifying Research Studies
- Social science research articles generally include:
- summary or abstract
- statement of hypothesis, question, or assumption to be tested
- literature review
- methodology section with description of subjects, procedures, and tools used
- findings/results section, with analysis of results, significance, and/or explanation of conclusions
- suggestions for further research and/or discussion of what the results don’t reveal
- Limit search results to academic, scholarly, or peer reviewed journals; although limiting provides a preliminary filter, not all articles in a scholarly journal report on evidence-based or empirical research (e.g., letters to the editor, editorials, book reviews, commentaries, etc.), so you need to evaluate each article individually.
- Look for research-related key words and phrases: study, measure, metric, subjects, cohort, data, survey, interview, focus group, control group, case study, field research, ethnography, pretest/post-test, textual analysis, content analysis, qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods, etc.
- Look for statistics, charts, and tables, as well concepts such as qualitative, quantitative, longitudinal, correlation, data, etc.
Finding Full Text
Many databases on the library's website include the full text of articles. Click on the PDF or HTML icon to download the article.
If full text is not available, click the Find It or 360 Link icons to see if there is access from another source.
Look for 
displayed for each item in the library's databases. In Google Scholar, look for Find Full Text @ Oberlin. Access via publisher websites is generally limited to subscribers.
Full text is not always accessible for immediate download. The 360 Link may lead to an intermediary page offering access through Interlibrary loan. If you have trouble, consult the library staff.
Interlibrary Loan
Can't find what you need at Oberlin? For books, try OhioLINK. For books not available through OhioLINK and for other types of materials, use Interlibrary Loan (ILL).
ILL lets you borrow materials from non-OhioLINK libraries, including print books, scanned journal articles, musical scores, videos, theses/dissertations, and more.