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SOCY 208: Find Sources

Search Tools for SOCY 208

Academic articles, sometimes also called journal articles or scholarly articles, are relatively short publications that academic researchers use to communicate new findings and ideas to other scholars. Articles are compiled in scholarly journals, which are essentially academic magazines that come out on a schedule. Many journal articles are peer-reviewed, which means they've gone through a formal review process before being published. 

When & Why to Use Articles:

  • You need information based on research and expertise.
  • You need detailed information that focuses on a narrow topic.
  • You need to find peer-reviewed material or ensure that the information you find is accurate.

Search for Articles for SOCY 208:

  • Criminology Collection (ProQuest)
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    Best Bet
    This collection supports research on crime, its causes and impacts, legal and social implications, as well as law enforcement and security services. It includes the National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) Abstracts Database, with further index and full-text coverage of scholarly journals. It also includes correctional and law enforcement trade publications, crime reports, crime blogs and other relevant material for researchers or those preparing for careers in criminal justice, law enforcement, and related fields.
  • SAGE Journals Online
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    Best Bet
    Full text journals in the areas of Business, Humanities, Social Sciences, and Science, Technology and Medicine, often from volume 1, issue 1 to the present.
  • SocINDEX with Full Text
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    Best Bet
    Sociology resource containing full text for 860 journals (dating back to 1908), over 800 books, and thousands of conference papers.
  • Sociology Collection (ProQuest)
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    Best Bet
    This collection provides access to Sociological Abstracts in combination with other databases covering the international literature in sociology and social services, along with related fields. Together, it provides abstracts, indexing and full-text coverage of journal articles, books, book chapters, dissertations, working papers, and more, including full-text from hundreds of leading sociology journals.
  • African American Experience
    • Login Required
    Featuring perspectives from African American scholars and historians, The African American Experience brings voice and context to the lived experiences of African Americans in U.S. history. Expertly curated primary and secondary sources illustrate diverse threads of African American social, political, and cultural history. Contains primary documents, peer-reviewed scholarly essays, images, including 1,500 photographs.
  • Alternative Press Index
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    Alternative Press Index is a bibliographic database of journal, newspaper and magazine articles from hundreds of international alternative, radical and left periodicals. Covering 1991 to the present, it provides access to emerging theories and practices of social change.
  • Black Thought and Culture
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    Contains 1,303 sources with 1,210 authors, covering the non-fiction published works of leading African Americans.
  • Daily Life through History
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    Cross-disciplinary resource that supports history, social studies, English, and language students, and moves from past to present, providing context for contemporary life and culture. Includes Daily Life in American and World Cultures Today.
  • Ethnic NewsWatch
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    Database of the newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press. Contains over 830,000 full-text articles from 240 publications. Covers 1990 to present.
  • GenderWatch
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    GenderWatch indexes over 200 scholarly journals, magazines, newsletters, newspapers, and ebooks on the evolution of gender roles as they affect men and women. Includes some full-text.
  • JSTOR
    • E-Book
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    JSTOR includes archives of nearly three thousand academic journals across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, as well as select monographs and other materials valuable for academic work. Journals are included from volume 1, issue 1 and include previous and related titles; the most recently published issues (past 3-5 years) are not available.
  • LGBTQ+ Source
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    Full-text coverage for important literature regarding lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues. Offering a variety of scholarly, popular and regional resources, it includes journals, books, magazines and more.
  • Oxford African American Studies Center
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    Provides more than 8,000 articles by top scholars in the field. The core content includes Africana; Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895; Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present; Black Women in America, Second Edition; and African American National Biography. In addition to the full-text of these works, the Center draws on other key resources from Oxford's reference program, including the Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature, the Oxford Companion to Black British History, and selected articles from other major reference titles.
  • ScienceDirect Elsevier Science Journals
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    Online access to Elsevier journal subscriptions in the physical sciences and engineering, life sciences, health sciences, and social sciences and humanities.
  • Social Justice Suite (HeinOnline)
    Multidisciplinary resource covering social justice issues including civil rights, LGBTQ+ rights, gun regulation and legislation, and the history of slavery in the U.S. and English-speaking world.
  • Social Science Premium Collection (ProQuest)
    • Login Required
    Provides access to databases covering international literature in social sciences, including politics, public policy, sociology, social work, anthropology, criminology, linguistics, library science, and education. Featured databases include International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS), Sociological Abstracts and Worldwide Political Science Abstracts.
  • Women and Social Movements Scholar's Edition
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    Intended to serve as a resource for students and scholars of U.S. history and U.S. women's history, organized around the history of women in social movements in the U.S. between 1600 and 2000. The database contains 75,000 pages of additional primary source materials related to the women's movement in the United States.
  • Women's Studies International
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    Bibliographic database covering the core disciplines in women's studies and feminist research. It supports many fields of study, including sociology, history, international relations, humanities and more.

Scholarly books are nonfiction books usually based on academic research done by the author or authors. They can contain multiple chapters on different aspects of a particular topic, or they can focus entirely on one concept or idea.

When & Why to Use Scholarly Books:

  • You need to understand a complex topic. Books are generally easier to read than journal articles.
  • You need very in-depth analysis of a topic.
  • You need a broad understanding of one or more topics.
  • You need a summary of existing research on a topic.

Search for Books and E-Books for SOCY 208:

  • SocINDEX with Full Text
    • Login Required
    Best Bet
    Sociology resource containing full text for 860 journals (dating back to 1908), over 800 books, and thousands of conference papers.
  • African American Experience
    • Login Required
    Featuring perspectives from African American scholars and historians, The African American Experience brings voice and context to the lived experiences of African Americans in U.S. history. Expertly curated primary and secondary sources illustrate diverse threads of African American social, political, and cultural history. Contains primary documents, peer-reviewed scholarly essays, images, including 1,500 photographs.
  • Black Thought and Culture
    • Login Required
    Contains 1,303 sources with 1,210 authors, covering the non-fiction published works of leading African Americans.
  • Encyclopedia of American Studies
    • Login Required
    Published by Johns Hopkins University Press for the American Studies Association (ASA), the Encyclopedia of American Studies covers the history, philosophy, arts, and cultures of the United States in relation to the world, from pre-colonial days to the present, from various perspectives and the global American Studies movement.
  • GenderWatch
    • Login Required
    GenderWatch indexes over 200 scholarly journals, magazines, newsletters, newspapers, and ebooks on the evolution of gender roles as they affect men and women. Includes some full-text.
  • JSTOR
    • E-Book
    • Login Required
    JSTOR includes archives of nearly three thousand academic journals across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, as well as select monographs and other materials valuable for academic work. Journals are included from volume 1, issue 1 and include previous and related titles; the most recently published issues (past 3-5 years) are not available.
  • Latino American Experience
    • Login Required
    A full-text digital resource exploring the history and culture of U.S. Latinos.
  • Oxford African American Studies Center
    • Login Required
    Provides more than 8,000 articles by top scholars in the field. The core content includes Africana; Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895; Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present; Black Women in America, Second Edition; and African American National Biography. In addition to the full-text of these works, the Center draws on other key resources from Oxford's reference program, including the Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature, the Oxford Companion to Black British History, and selected articles from other major reference titles.
  • Social Justice Suite (HeinOnline)
    Multidisciplinary resource covering social justice issues including civil rights, LGBTQ+ rights, gun regulation and legislation, and the history of slavery in the U.S. and English-speaking world.
  • Social Science Premium Collection (ProQuest)
    • Login Required
    Provides access to databases covering international literature in social sciences, including politics, public policy, sociology, social work, anthropology, criminology, linguistics, library science, and education. Featured databases include International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS), Sociological Abstracts and Worldwide Political Science Abstracts.
  • Statistical Abstract of the United States
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    Online version of the Statistical Abstract of the United States; provides a comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States.
  • World Folklore and Folklife
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    Interdisciplinary resource of the world's folklore and folklife, touching on topics of literature, social and religious practices, history, art, music, and languages.

Research Skills & Tips:

MC Library has access to streaming videos and audio, as well as DVDs and CDs. Different types of video and audio include documentaries, educational videos, mainstream movies, radio interviews, and podcasts. Additionally, users have access to a variety of images that can be used in their research.

When & Why to Use Videos or Media:

  • You need to include an expert's point of view, and a documentary or podcast on your topic includes an interview.
  • You're doing a presentation and need to include a visual or audio element.
  • You need to learn a concept that is best understood visually.

Search for Videos and Media for SOCY 208:

  • African American Experience
    • Login Required
    Featuring perspectives from African American scholars and historians, The African American Experience brings voice and context to the lived experiences of African Americans in U.S. history. Expertly curated primary and secondary sources illustrate diverse threads of African American social, political, and cultural history. Contains primary documents, peer-reviewed scholarly essays, images, including 1,500 photographs.
  • Kanopy
    • Login Required
    • Video
    TIP: Use Chrome or Firefox when accessing videos for best viewing experience. Collection of streaming videos in all genres - from documentaries to movies to training videos.

A database is essentially a compilation of resources on a particular topic or field of study. Some databases cover multiple topics, and these are called multidisciplinary databases.

When & Why to Use Multidisciplinary Databases:

  • You're unsure of which database to choose for your research.
  • Your research encompasses several different topics.
  • You're just getting started with learning how to use databases for research -- multidisciplinary databases are often easier for beginners to navigate.

Search Multidisciplinary Databases:

  • Academic Search Complete
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    Best Bet Featured

    Academic Search Complete is a scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 8,500 full-text periodicals, including more than 7,300 peer-reviewed journals. In addition to full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for more than 12,500 journals and a total of more than 13,200 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc..

  • ABC-CLIO EBook Collection
    • E-Book
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    You can search through hundreds of e-books through their main interface. These titles are also available through RaptorSearch.
  • Academic Video Online Premium
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    • Video
    This resource has over 65,000 video titles in subject areas including anthropology, business, counseling, history, music, film, and more. Video types include documentaries, feature films, interviews, performances, and news programs among others.
  • Credo Reference
    • E-Book
    • Login Required
    Online reference library with a wide selection of reference books. Search or browse by subject. These titles are also accessible through RaptorSearch.
  • Docuseek2 Collection
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    • Video
    Docuseek2 provides educational streaming access to documentary and social issues films and videos.
  • eBooks on EBSCOhost
    • E-Book
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    Includes reference works, scholarly monographs, literature, and other fiction. You can search for ebooks by title, keyword, author, or full text and can browse the book online or "check it out" after creating a free online account. Checking out a book allows you to view the book anywhere, anytime for the specified check out period. These titles are also accessible through RaptorSearch. For information on how to use e-books on EBSCOhost, please see this helpful guide.
  • Encyclopaedia Britannica
    • E-Book
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    Encyclopaedia Britannica Online includes the complete encyclopedia, as well as Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary and Thesaurus, Britannica Student Encyclopedia and the Britannica Book of the Year.
  • Films on Demand
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    • Video
    Includes thousands of streaming video titles in the Academic Master collection from a variety of publishers including Films for the Humanities & Sciences, PBS, Film Board of Canada, and many more. New titles added monthly. These titles are also accessible through RaptorSearch.
  • Flipster
    • Login Required
    Online access to popular magazines via the web or your mobile device. To download issues to your iOS or Android device, access Flipster via your mobile browser and then choose "Open in App" from the Options menu. Issues can be downloaded directly from the app by choosing "MONTGOMERY COLLEGE ROCKVILLE LIBRARY" through the "Find My Library" search tool.
  • Gale Academic OneFile
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    Academic OneFile is a source for peer-reviewed, full-text articles from leading journals and reference sources. Includes extensive coverage of the physical sciences, technology, medicine, social sciences, the arts, theology, literature and other subjects. Academic OneFile includes Expanded Academic ASAP.
  • Gale eBooks
    • E-Book
    • Login Required
    A selected collection of encyclopedias and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research. For a current title list of our offerings, see the List of Sources once you are in the collection. These titles are also accessible through RaptorSearch. For information on how to use e-books on Gale, please see this helpful video.
  • Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints
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    Featured

    A complete one-stop source for information on social issues. Access viewpoint articles, topic overviews, statistics, primary documents, links to websites, and full-text magazine and newspaper articles.

  • JSTOR
    • E-Book
    • Login Required
    JSTOR includes archives of nearly three thousand academic journals across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, as well as select monographs and other materials valuable for academic work. Journals are included from volume 1, issue 1 and include previous and related titles; the most recently published issues (past 3-5 years) are not available.
  • Kanopy
    • Login Required
    • Video
    TIP: Use Chrome or Firefox when accessing videos for best viewing experience. Collection of streaming videos in all genres - from documentaries to movies to training videos.
  • MasterFILE Premier
    • Login Required
    Full text for nearly 1,700 periodicals with full-text information dating as far back as 1975. Covering virtually every subject area of general interest, MasterFILE Premier also contains full text for nearly 500 reference books and over 164,400 primary source documents, as well as an Image Collection of over 592,000 photos, maps & flags.
  • Oxford Reference Online Premium
    • Login Required
    Brings together language and subject reference works into a single cross-searchable resource. Offers over 300 fully-indexed, cross-searchable dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press and a selection of partner publishers' scholarly works. Includes detailed information across a broad subject range from titles in the Oxford Companions Series.
  • Oxford Scholarship Online
    • E-Book
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    Thousands of ebooks in all subject areas, with new titles added on a monthly basis.
  • Project Muse
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    Full-text access to over 30,000 eBooks and 600 journals in the humanities, arts, and social sciences from 100 scholarly publishers.
  • ProQuest Ebook Central
    • E-Book
    • Login Required
    Online collection of academic ebooks that can be read on- or offline. These titles are also accessible through RaptorSearch. For information on how to use e-books on ProQuest, please see this helpful guide.
  • ProQuest Primary Sources Collection
    • E-Book
    • Login Required
    • Video
    Collection of over 160 multidisciplinary primary resources, including books, journals, dissertations, primary-source documents, and videos.
  • RaptorSearch
    RaptorSearch allows you to find items located physically at the library along with most content that MC Library subscribes to online. Results may include articles from scholarly journals, books, e-books; videos and other media, newspaper articles, and more.
  • SAGE Journals Online
    • Login Required
    Full text journals in the areas of Business, Humanities, Social Sciences, and Science, Technology and Medicine, often from volume 1, issue 1 to the present.
  • SIRS Issues Researcher
    • Login Required
    General reference database containing thousands of full-text articles exploring social, scientific, health, historic, business, economic, political and global issues. Articles and graphics are selected from 2,000 domestic and international publications according to strict criteria with regard to content and age appropriateness.

Search for Sources

The MC Library has access to different kinds of search tools: 

  • RaptorSearch searches across most of the information that you can access through the MC Library. Find books, e-books, streaming audio and video, and DVDs and CDs, as well as articles and other electronic resources from databases available through the library.
  • Databases are collections of articles, videos, images, or other types of sources. Some databases cover only one research area, like psychology or English. Other databases cover multiple research areas and are called multidisciplinary databases. Some databases are based on source type, like photographs or videos, instead of research area.

Use the tabs in the Search Tools box on this page to find suggested search tools to use for a variety of types of sources. 

MC students, faculty, and staff can access all of our search tools and online resources from on- or off-campus.

Research Skills & Tips:

Unlike Google, library databases can't understand an entire sentence. You'll need to break your topic down into the most important ideas: the keywords. Keywords are individual words or short phrases that represent the main ideas in your topic, thesis, or research question. 

Example Question: What measures are being taken to reduce human trafficking in Cambodia?

Keywords: human trafficking, measures, Cambodia

After you've identified your main ideas and some keywords to start with, think of additional search terms for each concept. These can be synonyms, related ideas, broader terms, or narrower terms. Since a database will match only what you type, using different terms for similar ideas can help you find more articles. 

Example Search Terms:

  • human trafficking: sex trafficking, human slavery, slave labor, indentured servitude, child marriage, slavery
  • measures: enforcement, laws, policing, regulation, prosecution
  • Cambodia:  Southeast Asia, Kingdom of Cambodia, Phnom Penh

Click on the research issue you're having below to see tips for addressing it:

I'm Not Finding Enough Sources

I'm Finding Too Many Sources

I'm Finding Irrelevant Sources

None of These Tips Solved My Research Issue


Not Finding Enough Sources

  • Type the word OR between related search terms to get results containing either term. Put the related search terms in parentheses.
    • Example: Cambodia and policing and ("human trafficking" or "child marriage")
    "human trafficking" & "child marriage" highlighted
  • Use a truncation character (often the asterisk, *, but it can vary by search tool), which is a symbol added to the root of a word to tell the search tool that you want all forms of that word. 
    • Example: elect* will search for elect, election, elector, electoral, electorate, electing, etc.
  • Use a wildcard character (often the hash sign, #, but it can vary by search tool), which is a symbol that replaces any character in a word.
    • Example: wom#n will search for woman or women.

Finding Too Many Sources

  • Type the word AND between the main ideas in your search to get results containing all ideas.
    • Examples: "human trafficking" and enforcement and Cambodia; "slave labor" and policing and "Southeast Asia"
    Overlap btwn "human trafficking" & Cambodia

Finding Irrelevant Sources

  • Type the word NOT before a search term that you do not want your search results to contain.
    • Example: election not "united states"
    Diagram shows social media & internet highlighted
  • Type quotation marks around a specific phrase to get search results that contain only that exact phrase.
    • Example: "social media"
  • Use the search tool's filters to target search results that will meet your needs. You'll find filters on the search results screen. The exact location and filtering options varies by search tool.
    • Example: use a publication date filter to find sources published in the last five years.
    • Example: use a source type filter to find only articles or only videos.

If the options above did not help you find useful results, you may want to:

  • change your search terms,
  • select a different search tool,
  • make your topic broader or narrower, or
  • get research help from a librarian.

Research Skills & Tips:

After you've selected your search tool, identified keywords, and fixed research issues, it's time to choose your sources. It is common to get more search results than you will use, so you must evaluate the sources you find to choose the best ones for your research.

Start by scanning the search results to locate sources that fit your research question or need. The search results page will include information about each source, such as the title, year, and abstract, to help you determine its relevance.

Once you've found a source you'd like to use, evaluate its credibility by considering the evidence, source, context, audience, purpose, and execution of the source. Learn more on the Evaluate Information and Fake News guide linked below.


Research Skills & Tips:

Find Sources

"Find Sources." Magnifying Glass.

This page will help you choose where and how to search for your sources. As you search, use the tips on this page to help you evaluate each source you find.

Journals by Title

If you want to locate a particular journal, magazine, or newspaper, instead of an individual article, use the Journals by Title feature in RaptorSearch. Search by publication title, such as Newsweek or Psychological Bulletin, or get a list of all journals on your topic by browsing through the journal categories.