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SOCI 4392 & SOCI 3320: Research Methods & Sociology Capstone Research Guide

Suggested Databases

Since sociology is a wide-ranging field, you may find it helpful to search additional databases collections in related disciplines--like education, psychology, women's studies, and criminology.

Google Scholar Search

Google Scholar is a search tool from Google, separate from its main search engine, with its own URL (http://scholar.google.com). According to Google, its purpose is “to search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research.”

 

Setting up Google Scholar to connect to our library resources: Please see How to Set Up Google Scholar for Off-Campus Use for instructions.  If we have access to the resource you will see the "Find it @A&M-SA" link.

 

Limitations: You can not limit your search to peer reviewed articles only.  Google Scholar does not always connect to our sources and may prompt you to pay for full text access. Don't! . Remember, you can borrow items from other libraries for free through our interlibrary loan program.  You can read more about searching effectively in Google Scholar here.  

 

 

Search Tips

Search Tips

  • Enter each search term or concept in its own box. You are using the 'and' connector to find articles with each of those terms.
  • Quotation marks searches the database for those words together as a term, such as "minimum wage".
  • An asterisk (*) searches the database for that word plus any variants of the root word. For example, work* will search for work, worker, workforce, and workplace. 
  • Use the OR between words to search for synonyms, such as "low income" OR "poverty".
  • Use the limits to filter for a particular source type, such as peer reviewed journals
  • To refine by method enter terms such as quantitative, qualitative or empirical. Note: This method doesn't always work because these descriptors need to be listed in the article's record or abstract in order for them to appear on your results list.  
  • View more search tips and videos on the Research Help Tutorials tab on the guide

What is a Scholarly Article?

What is a scholarly article?

Many professors require students to cite scholarly journal articles in their research papers. Scholarly journals contain articles written by scholars for scholars. Articles are reviewed by other scholars before they are published. This is called peer review.  

Many databases allow you to restrict your searches to scholarly journals, sometimes called "refereed" or "peer reviewed" journals.

Types of scholarly articles

There are two different kinds of scholarly articles sociologists cite frequently in their work.  

  • Research articles present the findings from a specific study.  They typically start with a review of the literature and a description of how the study contributes our knowledge of the subject.  They then describe their research methods (qualitative, quantitative, or mixed) and present their findings. 
  • Review articles summarize the research being done on a particular topic and/or the theoretical approaches commonly taken.  They will reference many research articles recently published on a topic.  Review articles are a great place to start if you want to learn more about a subfield of sociology! 

Take a look at a sample issue of the American Journal of Sociology for some examples of research articles. 

Take a look at a sample issue of the Annual Review of Sociology for some examples of review articles.