SOCL 271: Families & Societies (Crawford Sullivan): Articles & More

Spend some time brainstorming keywords and search terms. Use subject headings or descriptors to help generate search terms.

When you find a good article, look at its References or Works Cited list. That will often lead you to other useful sources.

Do you have an article citation, but need to find the full-text article?

Three Steps to Finding the Full Text Article...

1. Check the Holy Cross Libraries' Catalog to find the journal in print or in electronic format by searching in the TITLE field for the name of the JOURNAL (not the article name): HC Catalog

2. If the catalog does not produce positive results, check the Electronic Journals A-Z List  by searching for the Journal name (not the article name) in the "Find" box.

3. If the Electronic Journals A-Z list does not produce positive results, order the article through InterLibrary Loan.

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Check out the library's e-journals list to search for articles in specific journals. For example:

• Annual Review of Sociology
• Journal of Marriage and Family
• Journal of Family Issues 
• American Sociological Review
• Journal of Family Theory & Review
• Family Relations

ProQuest Statistical Insight Provides access to statistical information produced by U.S. Federal agencies, States, private organizations, & major intergovernmental organizations. Try using Basic Search or Advanced Search. With Advanced Search, you can use the Subject List link to the right of the search form to view various search terms that you may want to use. You can go to a broad topic, such as "Families & households," (under Population & Income) and then find narrower topics.

Think about what organizations might have produced the type of statistics and reports that you need. ProQuest Statistical Insight provides access to information from many of these groups and some groups (such as the Bureau of the Census or the Administration for Children & Families) may provide information freely available online as well.

Google Scholar is a great tool for doing a broad search of scholarly literature on your topic:

• Google Scholar searches across many disciplines. 
• Your search results will include a broad range of sources, including journal articles, conference papers, theses, dissertations, academic books, pre-prints, and abstracts. 
• Results come from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. 
• Google Scholar also includes court opinions and patents.

You'll just want to keep some things in mind:

• Coverage is not comprehensive. Many sourcess are hidden in publishers' databases and journals that Google can't search, so you'll want to look at other databases as well. 
• Search results can include links to things like course syllabi and high school term papers, so you'll want to evaluate what you find. 

You can access advanced search features by clicking the arrow in the right of the search box. These features allow you to refine your search.

Look for the words Get Full Txt @ Holy Cross next to an article. You should be able to access any of these articles through the library's subscriptions. If you come across a source that Holy Cross does not have access to, remember that you can request the item through Interlibrary Loan.

Scholar Settings When you are on the Holy Cross campus, Google Scholar will automatically show you those Get Full Txt @ Holy Cross links next to articles that Holy Cross has access to. If you are off-campus, you can set your Scholar Settings to show the links for accessing sources through Holy Cross. You can modify your settings by selecting the Settings link in the upper-right corner of Google Scholar webpage.

Click on the Cited by and Related articles links at the bottom of a search result to find more relevant articles and books.