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SOCA03: Introduction to Sociology

2023-2024 - Prof. Bahar Hashemi

Find Articles: Search Sociological Abstracts

Search for peer-reviewed journal articles using Sociological Abstracts - an article database for Sociology available from the UTSC Library Website. 

  • Establish the keywords for your topic.  These are generally the main nouns (people, places, time periods, or issues) from your search question.  Example:  If you were researching issues around equal pay across North America, your keywords would be equal pay and North America. 

 

Sociological Abstracts is available from the UTSC Library Website.

  • Step 1:  On the UTSC Library homepage, By Subject A-Z under the Databases menu.

Database Link on Library Homepage

Databases by subject A-Z

  • Step 2:  On the Subjects A-Z page, select Sociology in the "Find databases by subject area" drop-down menu.

Screenshot of the Subjects A-Z page, with the "Find database by subject area" drop-down menu highlighted.

  • Step 3:  On the Subjects A-Z: Sociology page, consult the Best Bets section and click on Sociological Abstracts 

Screenshot of the Subjects A-Z: Sociology page, with the Sociological Abstracts database link circled.

  • Select Advanced Search & type your keyword search:  Use the following strategies to create an effective search.
    • AND:  Look for articles that include both terms entered. Works to combine different concepts.  Example:  Equal pay AND North America.
    • OR:  Look for articles that include at least one of the terms. Works to combine synonyms or like-terms.  Example:  Equal pay OR pay equity OR wage gap.
    • Quotation Marks:   Ensure that you find both words in a phrase together in that exact order.  Example: "equal pay"
    • Wildcard *:   Find variant endings of a keyword.  Example:  Canad* will find Canada, Canadian, or Canadians.  (Note: Wildcard is also called truncation.)

Screenshot of an advanced search in Sociological Abstracts.

  • Use limiters to focus your search
    • Peer-reviewed:   Select peer-reviewed to get only peer-reviewed journal articles in your search results.
    • Date:   Select articles published within the date range needed for your assignment.   For example,  need articles published in the last 10 years?   In 2020, use the date limiter to focus on articles published after 2010.

Screenshot of the limiters on the Sociological Abstracts advanced search page.

Select the Full Text link or click the Get It! button:  Use these links to access and download full-text of any articles you want for your assignment.   (If you have any trouble, please ask for assistance in the Library.)

Screenshot of the Get It! button in Sociological Abstracts search results.

Screenshot of the Full Text and Full Text - PDF links in Sociological Abstracts search results.

You can use any article you've already found on your topic to locate more material on your topic.

Example article:  Let's say you wanted to find more articles on the same topic as the following item.

  • References:   Check the reference list of the article.  Seeing which materials the author consulted and cited as they researched their article can point you to other relevant articles. 
  • Author:  Often academics will write multiple articles on the same topic.  Click on their name(s) to see if they have written anything else on your topic.
  • Cited by:  These sources cited (this means quoted) your original article.  Given that they quoted this article, there is a good chance they are on the same or similar topic.  Check if any of them might be useful for your assignment.
  • Subject:  These are the terms used to categorize the materials in the database and tag this specific article.  Use these terms to find more articles on the same topic.

Screenshot of an article's record in Sociological Abstracts with the author, references, cited by, and subject sections highlighted.

Need research help?   UTSC Library provides research help is available in-person, by phone, e-mail, or chat.   Please contact the UTSC Library for assistance.

Recommended Article Databases for Sociology

Begin your search with the following recommended databases to look for articles from peer-reviewed and scholarly journals on your topic. 

No one database has everything. Search multiple databases from the list below to find adequate articles on your topic. To find more databases from the library click Subjects A-Z on the library website and choose the subject(s) most relevant to your topic

Tutorial: Find Articles

Tutorial: Download Articles

Empirical Research

You may choose to include empirical articles in your research analysis. Empirical research articles are based on the author's direct study or experiments. In an empirical study, researchers will collect qualitative or quantitative data and analyze their results to answer a specific research question. While a literature review or theory paper will summarize or expound upon existing research, empirical research will include original research conducted by the article author(s), and is therefore considered to be primary research. The following resources will help you identify and locate empirical research articles.

Identifying Empirical Research

This video provides an overview of the components of empirical research, and describes how to determine whether an article is an empirical study.

Locating Empirical Research 

Most research databases do not have a filter for empirical research. You can narrow your search for empirical articles by including keywords in your search. The resources below will help you to identify and utilize search terms to summon empirical articles.