SWG 600 Foundations for Advanced Practice
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This page is primarily intended to provide an overview of key library and "free" web resources for MSW students as they begin working on their literature reviews.
Introduction · Research Basics · Search Tools ("Free" Web · Article Indexes · Book Catalogs) · Citing Sources
Introduction
Keep in mind that when selecting resources for a research project that when you choose to include a source in your bibliography (references or works cited), you are essentially telling your readers that these are the most relevant or provocate publications on your topic in all of the bibliographic universe.
We do not except you to comprehensively search that entire bibliographic universe, but we do expect you to exercise critical thinking and judgement when deciding which resources you choose to reference.
As ASU students you have access to a tremendous amount of expensive and high-quality research tools and resources.
You have the responsibility for determing which search tools you will use, but keep in mind that your access to the library-supplied information gives you an advantage over most practicing social workers. You have the option of using library-supplied, "free" web or both.
My recommendation is to begin with library-supplied tools and to then supplement your findings with select "free" web tools.
Research Basics
When you are in the process of narrowing or focusing your research topic or are not sure how to do so, one of the best things to do is to consult subject-specific encyclopedias for scholarly summaries of significant concepts, persons or theories.
View the listing of Fletcher Library Encyclopedias and Dictionaries for Social Work.
Slow down and think what you want to accomplish and make sure that you have a decent focus before you begin your online searching. Again, you want to make efficient use of your time. Consulting subject-specific encyclopedias will be a very useful investment in the long-run.
Graduate-level research is not as simple as entering keywords into an Internet search engine's search box and retrieving perfect results in full-text format.
Plan your search strategy (keywords and synonyms for each concept) and pick the search tool(s) that seem most relevant for your topic.
Search Tools
The ASU Libraries provide licensed or subscription access to over 300 licensed journal article indexes and thousands of electronic journals.
There are quite a few very useful "free" web tools.
When you supplement library-supplied information with "free" web tools - which is certainly the approach I recommend - you will understand why one of the most important parts of the research process is determining the most appropriate search tools.
You can spend countless fruitless hours searching if you are using less than ideal search tools. Your goal as a busy researcher is to identify those tools that are most likely to provide relevant results in an efficient manner.
After all searching is not the key part of your research - engaging with and synthesizing the literature is what you will be focusing on.
Search Tools: "Free" Web
Search Engines & MetaSearch Engines (Joe Buenker's list)
http://www.west.asu.edu/jbuenke/librarianship/engines.html
This page points to the more useful search engines and metasearch engines.
Search Tools: Article Indexes
Academic Search Premier (EBSCOhost)
This is a very good multidisciplinary database. It does not focus exclusively on social work or even social services, but it does index numerous important social work and sociological journals.
Social Work Abstracts
Produced by the National Association of Social Workers, this is the core article index for social work research.
E-Journals/Full-Text Periodicals by Subject
Browse subject-ordered lists of those journals provided in full-text format by the ASU Libraries.
Journal Finder: Psychology and Social Work
This is a project I have developed in order to provide easy access to key psychology and social work journals. You can easily determine if we have full-text access, print holdings or if the publisher provides table of contents or (possibly) "free" full-text.
- To learn about additional relevant article indexes, see the Identifying Journal Articles: Social Work web-page.
Search Tools: Books
ASU Libraries' Catalog
Determine which books, journals and videorecordings are physically owned or made electronically available to you through the ASU Libraries.
Books in Print
Use this tool to identify what books are in print or forthcoming. Many of the results include reviews of the books.
WorldCat
If you want to determine what books, dissertations, journals and videorecordings exist this is the single-best research tool.
Citing Sources
Citing Sources
Connect to a page from the "Social Work Research Guide" that provides a list of recommended resources for learning how to properly cite APA style/format.
RefWorks
RefWorks is a new bibliographic citation management tool. If you are going to be constructing a lengthy bibliography, consider using RefWorks. It allows you to access your bibliography from any machine connected to the Web.
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