Research Guides: Sociology: Home

Starting Points

Sociological Abstracts
Citations and abstracts of scholarly journals, dissertations, books, and conference papers in the social and behavioural sciences.
LibrarySearch
The library's main search tool. Articles, books, journals across all disciplines are included.
Sociology - Oxford Bibliographies
Sociology currently includes 205 topics such as masculinity, discrimination, social mobility, and poverty with more entries forthcoming.

Articles

Databases

To find more article databases select Subjects A to Z on the library home page, and choose a subject such as "South Asian Studies", "Education," "Indigenous Studies," "Public Policy," or "Sexual Diversity Studies" or consult Popular Databases.

General Sociology Databases

Sociological Abstracts
Citations and abstracts of scholarly journals, dissertations, books, and conference papers in the social and behavioural sciences.
International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS)
Citations to journal articles, books, reviews, and chapters in the fields of anthropology, economics, political science, and sociology.
Social Sciences Citation Index

Colonialism, Racialization, Indigeneity

See the Oxford Bibliographies Online sociological entries for colonialism, racism, and indigeneity, to discover the key sources and works in this area. In addition to the main sociology article databases, you might want to try:

Bibliography of Indigenous Peoples of North America
Covers Indigenous North American culture, history, and life. It contains eBooks, essays, journal, magazine and news articles, and government documents of the United States and Canada.
Black Studies Center
Website of both historical and current information for research on African Americans, the wider African Diaspora, and Africa itself.
Bibliography of Asian Studies (BAS)
A collection of English-language sources such as articles, book reviews, and feature stories in journals on East, Southeast, and South Asia

Crime & Law

See the Oxford Bibliographies Online sociological entries for critical criminology and sociology of law to discover the key sources and works in this area. In addition to the main sociology article databases, you might want to try:

Criminal Justice Abstracts with Full Text
Citations information including full text access to research related to criminal justice and criminology.
Nexis Uni
More than 15,000 news, legal and business sources. Extensive US coverage including US Supreme Court decisions since 1790. Some coverage for UK, France, Australia, and other foreign jurisdictions.

Culture & Gender

See the Oxford Bibliographies Online sociological entries for culture and gender to discover the key sources and works in this area. In addition to the main sociology article databases, you might want to try:

Gender Studies Database
Interdisciplinary database on a range of gender studies topics, including women, men, ethnic studies, and LGBTQ communities.
LGBT Life with Full Text
Full-text access to historically-significant LGBT journals, magazines, regional newspapers, and books.
Studies on Women and Gender Abstracts
A core database for women's studies. Covers women's health, social issues, and gender studies.

Global Migration

See the Oxford Bibliography Online entries for immigration and ethnicity to find out the key readings and sources on this topic. In addition to the main sociology article databases, you might want to try:

PAIS Index
A political science database with international literature in public affairs, public and social policies, and international relations.
GEOBASE
Database for physical and human geography, earth and environmental sciences, ecology, and related disciplines, focusing on the human and social impacts on both.

Ethnic newsWatch
Access full-text newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic and minority press, providing researchers access to essential, often overlooked perspectives. The database also contains Ethnic NewsWatch: A History, which provides historical coverage of Native American, African American, and Hispanic American periodicals from 1959-1989.

Health & Mental Health

See the Oxford Bibliographies Online sociological entries for health, mental illness, and medical sociology to discover the key sources and works in this area. In addition to the main sociology article databases, you might want to try:

APA PsycInfo (ProQuest)
The major database for scholarly literature in psychology, from the 1800s to present. Subjects include criminology, psychiatry, gerontology, neuroscience, sexual diversity studies, and social work.
Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts (ASSIA)
Citation information including abstracts covering social science and health related subjects.
PubMed
Public version of Medline, the core database for health sciences disciplines. This platform is best for quick clinical searches.

Work, Stratification, Markets

See the Oxford Bibliographies Online sociological entries for occupations and professions, organizations, work and employment, and social stratification to discover the key sources and works in this area. In addition to the main sociology article databases, you might want to try:

EconLit
Citation information including abstracts of economic research.
ABI/INFORM Global
A key database for business and management. Covers business conditions, trends, corporate strategy and tactics, etc.

Books

LibrarySearch

Enter your keywords in the LibrarySearch searchbox. If you want to perform a Boolean search or search across multiple fields, click on Advanced Search.

The University of Toronto has an extensive collection of sociology books, reports, videos and other resources in its libraries' collections.

Search for your topic in the library catalogue, or try one of the following sociology subject headings to get you started:

Handbooks and Encyclopedias

SAGE Research Methods
Sage Research Methods is the ultimate methods library with more than 1000 books, reference works, journal articles, and instructional videos by world-leading academics from across the social sciences. The Methods Map can help those less familiar with research methods to find the best technique to use in their research.

Routledge Handbooks Online - Sociology collection
Annual Review of Sociology
The Annual Review of Sociology covers the significant developments in the field of sociology. Topics covered in the journal include major theoretical and methodological developments as well as current research in the major subfields.

Data and Statistics

Map and Data Library
The Map and Data Library collections are divided into three main areas: digital, data, geospatial data and paper maps. Their services include helping students, faculty, staff and the general public in locating and using maps, data, and geospatial data and software.
Odesi
Odesi is a Canadian social science data repository and online exploration and analysis tool. It contains 5,700+ datasets curated by academic libraries in Canada.
Canada Open Government Portal
Data and statistics from many branches of government, from agriculture to zoology. Includes climate data, geospatial data and economic data.

Statistics Canada (English)
Canada's national statistical agency. Publicly available data includes census data from the most recent censuses and customizable tabular data from many Statistics Canada surveys. This is the primary producer of Canadian government surveys.
Statista
Categorized into 21 market sectors, Statista.com provides direct access to quantitative data on media, business, finance, politics, and a wide variety of other areas of interest or markets.

Newspapers and Magazines

Factiva
Current and archived news, business and company information worldwide.
Global Newsstream
Alternative Press Index
Articles, newspapers, and magazines from politically left international journals after 1991.

Citation Help

Why and how we cite sources in academic writing
The guide includes links to many helpful online tutorials, style guides, and related documents to help you understand citation practice, and build correct citations for your bibliography
Excelsior OWL Citation Style Guides
Support for APA, MLA, and Chicago documentation styles.
Citation Management Tools Comparison Table Compares the major reference management tools available to U of T students
Citing Elders and Knowledge Keepers
University of Toronto research guide on citing Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers.

Research Guides

Sociology