Navigating Academic Research
a short introduction for SOCI 001

Simon Elichko (they/them)
Social Sciences & Data Librarian

Everyday
Reading + Watching

Where
you're looking

What
you expect to find

How
you navigate

Posts, video, articles
 

Searching keywords

Algorithmically-generated feeds of content

Immediately, unless there's a paywall

When
you get to read or watch

Different job --> Different tool

Your job is to find four SOCIOLOGY articles (or books, or book chapters) that speak in some sense to your research topic/question.

Criteria:

• Each person in your group must have UNIQUE articles
   
• Every reading must meet at least one of these scholarly-ness criteria:
  • in a peer-reviewed scholarly journal
  • or (if a book) published by a scholarly press
    • usually has "university" in the title, plus Routledge and a few others
  • or (but please check with Professor Laurison ahead of time if you're using this option, and only use it for one source maximum) otherwise clearly a scholarly, research-based piece of work (e.g. PhD dissertations, Professor Laurison's last book with Beacon Press, certain working papers or blogs etc).  
     
• Every reading must meet at least one of these sociology-ness criteria
  • at least one author is a sociologist (defined as someone who either works in a sociology department or has a PhD in sociology)
  • the journal is a sociology journal (usual has "social" or "sociology" in the title)
  • the journal is interdisciplinary but publishes a fair amount of sociology (may only be used once)

Guide to resources for finding

sociology research

How to get to the research guide for SOC 1

1. Go to swarthmore.edu/libraries
2. Click Research Guides (below search)
3. Search foundations sociology

https://guides.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/soci001

Finding Sociology Research

Tripod

Searches books, chapters, articles, and other materials available from the TriCo libaries.

Try searching: Producing Politics

Look for: Publisher and Subjects

Finding Sociology Research

Google Scholar

https://scholar.google.com

Searches articles, books, chapters

Most will be scholarly (not quite all!)

Compare your results for these two searches:

• student activism
• student activism (source:sociology OR source:sociological)

Subject-specific databases can make it easier to find the kind of secondary sources you need. These databases emphasize journal articles in your field(s) and provide more filters than Google Scholar.

google scholar

Finding Sociology Research

Research Tool:

Sociological Abstracts

Finding Sociology Research

In Sociological Abstracts:
 

First search box: "college students"
    + Change the drop-down menu from Anywhere to
      Anywhere except full text
 

Second search box:  activism OR campaign

Then hit enter/press Search.
 

Research Tool:

Sociological Abstracts

Finding Sociology Research

You'll get a list of search results (books articles, dissertations).

Find the links on the left of your results. Limit your results to articles from the following journals:

• American Sociological Review   

• American Journal of Sociology   

• Social Forces

• Social Problems

Research Advice + Suggestions

How to contact Simon:

• Schedule an appointment
  bit.ly/selichk1

• Email selichk1@swarthmore.edu

Research guide bit.ly/soan-libguide