Sociologists primarily use scholarly journals, books, data (quantitative & qualitative), and "grey literature" in their research. "Grey literature" is a term used to describe research reports that have not been published through traditional commercial or academic means (e.g. a report from a think tank, like the Pew Research Foundation Internet Project). Sociologists also use government documents and archives.
While scientists generally work and publish in teams and humanists often publish alone, it is common for sociologists to work alone or with several co-authors. Most sociological research is published in scholarly journal articles or books. Books remain an important form of publication in sociology. In addition, analysis of text and numerical data is an increasingly important part of sociological research.
Use the tabs on this guide to learn more about where you can find the various resources sociologists use.
Where to start?
Start with what interests you most! Having a real interest in the topic you're researching will motivate you to work hard on something you're proud of. Create a list of as many interesting topics (related to the class subject, of course) as you can think of. There are no bad ideas at this stage.
If you're at a loss for what to write about, try the following resources. They’ll point you to questions scholars in the field find interesting and important. If you pay close attention, they’ll also reveal some gaps in the literature and ways you might help fill them.
Encyclopedias
Encyclopedia articles provide a broad but condensed overview on a topic and are written by subject experts. They can assist you with learning about your topic, selecting or narrowing down your topic, brainstorming search terms and where to find additional credible resources.
A subject heading search for sociology-encyclopedias or Sociology Handbooks, manuals, etc. in our catalog is great places to start. We also subscribe to the database Credo which contains hundreds of general and subject specific encyclopedias. Check out the Finding Books tab on this guide for examples of encyclopedias and handbooks from our collection.
Review Articles
Review articles summarize recent research in a subfield of sociology and generally include some analysis of this literature as well. Does current research focus heavily on the intersections of race and gender? Is there a lot of research being done on the experiences of homeless men, to the exclusion of homeless women? Review articles will often point out such strengths and/or omissions in the literature. The Annual Review of Sociology is a good resource for review articles. However, many databases will also let you restrict your search to review articles by selecting "literature reviews" as a search criterion. Check out the Finding Articles tab on this guide for access to databases to search for review articles.
Dissertations
Dissertations are important not only for their content but also for their literature reviews. Finding a reasonably current dissertation related to your topic will usually lead you to much of the literature that you need. Literature reviews are especially helpful since they are much more than an alphabetical list of sources; they put the sources in context, often describing the history of research on the topic and evaluating various approaches. In dissertations, literature reviews are usually so extensive that they merit a separate chapter. Dissertations can be located through some of our databases such as SocIndex (limit document type to dissertation) or through ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global (PQDT) ™ (Proquest) You’ll need your university login to access these resources.
Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] is an open-source tool which allows you to collect, organize, cite, and share research sources easily, using a web browser extension along with a stand-alone program on your computer.
This page has been adapted from the Sociological Research guide from Emory Libraries by Melissa Hackman.