Research Guides: Social Work: Articles

Finding Academic Articles

Academic Journals vs. Popular Journals

Most professors prefer that you locate scholarly sources from academic journals for your research, which disqualifies many sources you would find in a regular Google search.

Popular Journals (magazines) are the journals you typically find on newsstands and grocery store checkout lines. Their articles are written and edited by journalists without particular expertise in the field of study. You will usually want to avoid these unless told otherwise.

Academic/scholarly journals, on the other hand, contain articles written by scholars who are experts in that discipline. They often go through a rigorous process called peer-review where they are evaluated (sometimes multiple times) by other scholars in the same field before being published. These are the articles your professors usually want. This page should help you find where to look for them.

Suggested Databases

This is a list of recommended databases to search for Social Work Research.

ProQuest Central
This database combines articles from 30 individual ProQuest databases into one and contains articles on Social Work and related disciplines.
Social Science Database (ProQuest)
This database has over full text access for over 340 journal titles in the Social Sciences. Coverage begins in 1991.
Social Sciences Full Text
Full text coverage begins in 1995.
Research Library at ProQuest
Provides full-text for thousands of titles, including academic journals, trade publications, magazines, and newspapers. 1971 - present.
Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Full text, scholarly articles from 1911 to present.
PsycINFO (at EBSCOhost)
This is the largest resource devoted to peer-reviewed literature in behavioral science and mental health and may contain information related to Social Work.
APA Journal Coverage List: http://www.apa.org/psycinfo/covlist.html
Psychology Database (ProQuest)
This database hosts a wide range of topics and sometimes includes information relevant to social work.

Other Suggested Databases

Public Health Database (ProQuest)
This is a place to find health related information that overlaps with a number of other fields including Social Work.
Child Development & Adolescent Studies
This database does not have full text of articles (only citation information), but you can search our library here to see if we have it elsewhere or make an ILL request.
Psychology & Behavioral Sciences Collection
This database does not have full text of articles (only citation information), but you can search our library here to see if we have it elsewhere or make an ILL request.
Violence & Abuse Abstracts
This database includes citations needed to find articles related to violence and abuse, family violence, sexual assault, emotional abuse, and more. If we don't have the article (search here) you can use the citation to make an ILL request.
PsycARTICLES
The PsycArticles database contains psychology articles that may relate to some social work topics. Coverage dates back to 1894.
Title List: http://www.apa.org/pubs/databases/psycarticles/coverage-list.aspx

What If I Can't Find the Full Article?

If you can't find the full-text of an article but have a citation, you can still get access.

TRY THIS FIRST: Use the citation information you have to search here. The Find Journals tab on the library homepage takes you directly to this link. Remember to search by the journal title.

Interlibrary Loan Request the article to be sent to you from another library. Use the article form and be sure to select your home library. These may take several days to arrive so you can't wait until the last minute. Articles will be emailed to you.

Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a helpful alternative source for finding authoritative academic articles. There is no Advanced Search in Google Scholar, so if you have multiple terms, you must connect them in one line using your Boolean Operators (and, or, not). For example, "capital punishment" AND juveniles OR adolescents

Research often works best when you search in a variety of places. I recommend trying some of our GALILEO databases in addition to searching Google Scholar. Sometimes one option works better than the other. Other times, you may find some extra articles that boost the quality of your paper or assignment by checking Google Scholar as well. You can also find open access articles here that you might otherwise miss.

Social Work