Literature Search in Sociology

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Literature Search in Sociology

• Hayati Abdul
• Information Services
• Central Library
• clbha_at_nus.edu.sg

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Objectives

• To help you
• Conduct a search to locate scholarly literature
  using an academic resource - Sociological
  Abstracts
• Retrieve scholarly works to be reviewed using
• Library portal
• LINC

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Contents

• Identify sources for literature search
• Search Sociological Abstracts
• Getting started
• Build your search
• Understand and use search results
• Search LINC
• Basic, advanced proximity searches
• Getting help
• Library Instruction ONline (LION)
• Subject guides

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Sources for literature search

• Books particularly reference materials
• (e.g. topical encyclopedias) provide
• overview of chosen topic
• references, bibliographies for further reading.
• Electronic databases provide
• preliminary list of scholarly works to be
  reviewed including
• peer reviewed journals
• book chapters
• conference proceedings
• dissertations, etc.
• Evaluate sources

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Evaluate sources
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What are peer-reviewed journals?

• Scholarly journals
• More specialized, research based current
• Purpose is to extend scholarly knowledge in the
  field
• Written by researchers, scholars, experts
• Are peer reviewed or refereed for
• research value, scholarly merit and accuracy
• Authors rigorously cite their sources in the form
  of footnotes or bibliographies
• Are published by professional association or
  scholarly press.

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What is Sociological Abstracts

• It is a primary database for locating latest
  research in Sociology
• It provides abstracts of
• journal articles, books, book chapters, book
  reviews, dissertations, conference papers
• Produced by CSA Illumina, Bethesda Maryland
• Database coverage1952-present
• Subjects covered
• culture social structure, complex
  organizations, family social welfare,
  evaluation research, rural urban sociology,
  social psychology, social theory, violence
  power, women studies, more

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How to access Sociological Abstracts from Library
portal?
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Build your search

• What is your research topic?
• Blogging and presentation of the self
• Identify main concepts, variant spellings
• Blogging and self
• List terms related to your search
• (Bloggers or blogs or blog) AND self
• Are you looking for
• specific authors works?
• e.g. Paul Williss theory on
• Learning to labour
• specific journals?

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Refine your search Boolean operators

• AND is used to indicate that both terms must be
  present
• OR is used to indicate that either terms may be
  present
• NOT is used to indicate that one term must not be
  present

self
blogging
interracial
interethnic
internet gambling
casino gambling
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Build your searchTruncation , round
parentheses ( )

• Use for variant forms of term
• blog blogs, bloggers, blogging
• teen teens, teenagers, teenaged
• Use ( ) for grouping words or phrases
• (interethnic or interracial) and dating
• interracial dating, interethnic dating
• (teen or adolescen) and pregnancy
• teenage pregnancy
• adolescent pregnancy

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Lets search
My Blog is me blogging and presentation of the
self
blog and self
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Lets search
Learning to labour by Paul Willlis
learning to labour and (willis paul or paul
willis)
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Lets search
Life stage transitions in young adults
life stage transitions and young adults and
work and education
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Lets search
Tattoos deviance or fashion?
tattoo and (fashion or devian)
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Lets search
Made in Bollywood negotiating cultural
identity in Hindi cinema
bollywood and (cultur or ethnic) and identity
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Lets search
japan and (anime or animat) and (globali and
cultur)
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Lets search
(adolescen or youth) and rap music and popular
culture
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Lets search
Representation of the male body in popular
magazines
males and (body image or masculinity) and
magazines
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Search tips for Sociological Abstracts

• Quick Search
• Searches single words or phrases
• Quick search anywhere search
• Enter Boolean operators in search box
• AND, OR and NOT
• Advanced Search
• Allows more complex searches
• Combine terms using Boolean operators available
  from the drop-down lists
• Use drop-down menus to select specific fields
• Anywhere, Keywords, Author, Title, Descriptors
• Check for relevant
  headings

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Search tips for Sociological Abstracts

• Limits
• Date
• Use drop down menus to limit to range of years
• Latest update
• limits results to include only most recent
  records
• Journal articles
• Click to limit search to journal articles only
• English
• limits to records that are available in English
• QuickBib
• Use selected records to create bibliography in
  ASA style.

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Search tips for Sociological Abstracts

• Displaying and viewing records
• Click on View record for more details, including
  abstract
• Results displayed by All Publication Types
• Results can be sorted by
• Most recent or Relevance
• Click on Edit Search to view search screen
• Add or remove term(s) to focus search
• Managing search results
• Mark, Print, Email, Save

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Interpret references

• Journal article

Kosut, Mary. 2006. "Mad Artists and Tattooed
Perverts Deviant Discourse and the Social
Construction of Cultural Categories." Deviant
Behavior 27(1)73-95.
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Search journal in LINC
Search journal by title
Limit to Journals Collection
Click to access E-journal
Click for current issues
Click for location of current issues
Click for location of bound volumes
Click for other bound volumes
Search specific volume or year
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Interpret references

• Book chapter

Farrer, Peter. 1996. "In Female Attire Male
Experiences of Cross-Dressing - Some Historical
Fragments." Pp. 9-26 in Blending Genders, edited
by Richard Ekins and Dave King. London
Routledge.
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LINC
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LINC - Features

• Adjacency (Phrase searching)
• E.g. moral panics changi village
• Truncation
• (for 15 characters)
• E.g. religio
• Operators,
• AND, OR, NOT, ( )
• Proximity Near, Within
• commodification near culture
• Fields
• aauthor ttitle ssubject nnote
• Limit Search, Marking, Saving Exporting

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Citing References American Sociological
Association
Help readers verify your claims
Why Cite?
Back-up your arguments
Show research done
Acknowledge intellectual debt

• Guides
• American Sociological Association. ASA style
  guide
• Quick style guide for students writing Sociology
  papers
• A guide to writing Sociology papers

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Getting help
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Subject Guides

• Good starting point for research in Sociology

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We are here

• Advisory Service atInformation Desk,Central
  Library,Level 5.
• Email us askalib_at_nus.edu.sg
• Tel [phone]