LibGuides: Social Work: Find Articles using Databases

What is a Database?

A databases are electronic centers of information that are organized and searchable.

Library databases provide access to academic journals, full-text articles, e-books platforms, newspapers, magazines, images collections, music, data sets, statistics & demographics, and government publications. There are over 200 databases available in the Library.

Some databases are purchased by the library through a subscription for the use of the Atlanta University Center students, faculty and staff. You need your Remote Assess to get to subscription library databases when you not on campus. .

What makes an article scholarly?

The distinguishing feature of a scholarly article is not that it is without errors; rather, a scholarly article is distinguished by a few characteristics which reduce the likelihood of errors. For our purposes, those characteristics are expert authors, peer-review, and citations.

Expert Authors - Authority is constructed and contextual. In other words it is built through academic credentialing and lived experience. Scholarly articles are written by experts in their respective fields rather than generalists. Expertise often comes in the form of academic credentials. For example, an article about the spread of various diseases should be written by someone with credentials and experience in immunology or public health.
Peer-review - Peer-review is the process whereby scholarly articles are vetted and improved. In this process an author submits an article to a journal for publication. However, before publication, an editor of the journal will send the article to other experts in the field to solicit their informed and professional opinions of it. These reviewers (sometimes called referees) will give the editor feedback regarding the quality of the article. Based on this process, articles may be published as is, published after specific changes are made, or not published at all.
Citations - One of the key differences between scholarly articles and other kinds of articles is that the former contain citations and bibliographies. These citations allow the reader to follow up on the author's sources to verify or dispute the author's claim.

Helpful Tools

Finding full-text articles is easy with LibKey and BrowZine! Click the icons below to begin.

For more information about these tools, visit our LibKey guide.

LibKey Nomad is a browser extension that connects to full-text articles while you search online.

LibKey.io is a simple search interface that finds full-text articles with just a DOI.

BrowZine is a highly visual and intuitive platform that allows you to explore our scholarly journal collection.

Frequently Used Databases

One of the most efficient ways to locate articles on topics related to Social Work is to use the library's research databases. These databases are selected to provide access to research and information from journals in every discipline. For a complete list of databases available from the Robert W. Woodruff Library click here. When connecting to these resources from off-campus, you must enter your Remote Access Account before you are allowed access.

Child Welfare Information Gateway
A service of the Children's Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services this database provide access to print and electronic publications, websites, and online databases covering a wide range of topics from prevention to permanency, including child welfare, child abuse and neglect, adoption, and more
Counseling and Therapy in Video
Counseling and Therapy in Video provides the largest and richest online collection of video available for the study of counseling, social work, psychotherapy, psychology, and psychiatric counseling. The collection's wealth of video and multiplicity of perspectives allow students and scholars to see, experience, and study counseling in ways never before possible.
Dissertations and Theses - (ProQuest)
Covers dissertations completed in the U.S. at accredited institutions for the last 150 years--newer dissertations are full-text.
Google Scholar
Searches peer-reviewed papers, dissertations, books, preprints, reports from academic publishers, professional societies, universities and other scholarly organizations. Google Scholar is not considered comprehensive for academic content, but it can provide a snapshot of literature across disciplines.
Kanopy Streaming Video
Streaming video collection with over 20,000 films from leading producers such as Criterion Collection, The Great Courses, New Day Films, HBO, California Newsreel, PBS, BBC, and First Run Features. Kanopy makes it easy to share films, create clips, and embed videos. Most films on the Kanopy platform have closed captioning and transcripts.
Nexis Uni (formerly LexisNexis Academic)
Indexes references to nearly 2 million journal articles, books, government documents, statistical directories, research related to public affairs and public policy worldwide.
Mental Measurements Yearbook with Tests in Print
A database that provides users with a comprehensive guide to over 3,000 contemporary testing instruments and contains information essential for a complete evaluation of test products within diverse areas.
APA PsycArticles
A database offering complete access to the full text of more than 90 landmark journals in behavioral science and related fields ranging from education, to nursing, to business, to neuroscience.
PsycINFO
American Psychological Association's (APA) resource for abstracts of scholarly journal articles, book chapters, books, and dissertations, is the largest resource devoted to peer-reviewed literature in behavioral science and mental health. It contains over 2.5 million citations and summaries, and ninety-eight percent of the covered material is peer-reviewed.
ProQuest Research Library
Provides one-stop access to thousands of full-text periodicals from one of the broadest, most inclusive general reference databases ProQuest has to offer. Search from a highly-respected, diversified mix of scholarly journals, professional and trade publications, and magazines covering over 150 subjects and topics. in all instances.
PubMed
PubMed is a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine that includes over 18 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals for biomedical articles back to 1948. PubMed includes links to full text articles and other related resources
Science Direct
Overs 1,800 full text journals in the areas of science, technology, and medicine. Full text coverage for all titles goes back to 1995; coverage for IDEAL titles goes back to 1993.
Social Work Abstracts
Social Work Abstracts contains information on the fields of social work and human services from 1977 to present. The database provides coverage of over 500 journals in all areas of the profession, including theory and practice, areas of service, social issues, and social problems. Practitioners and researchers in areas such as social sciences, gerontology, welfare, public health, criminology, and education as well as all areas of human services, will benefit from using this database.

SocIndex Full-Text
SocINDEX with full-text offers coverage of the scholarly literature from all subdisciplines of sociology, including abortion, anthropology, criminology, criminal justice, cultural sociology, demography, economic development, ethnic & racial studies, gender studies, marriage & family, politics, religion, rural sociology, social psychology, social structure, social work, sociological theory, sociology of education, substance abuse, urban studies, violence, welfare, and many others.

Online News and News Papers

Lexis Nexis Academic
CQ Researcher
Chronicle of Higher Education
Access is through Academic Search Complete
Newspaper Source
Proquest Newspapers
ViewsWire
Wall Street Journal
Access is through Factiva,Proquest Newspapers and Lexis Nexis Academic

***Factiva:
Only Available for Use in the AUC Woodruff Library Computer Lab on the Lower Level