A-Z Databases: SocINDEX: Library Guide

EBSCOhost Tutorials (2022) Advanced searching tutorial. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsD0ZH1hx4o  (Accessed: 14 July 2023).

Use to find good quality full text peer reviewed journal articles about the Social Sciences.

Subject areas include:

• Careers 
• Criminal Justice
• Counselling
• Gender Studies
• Racial Studies
• Religion
• Social Psychology
• Social Work
• Sociology
• Substance Abuse

Download the EBSCO mobile app for easier access.

EBSCO Tutorials (2023) The EBSCO mobile app - Tutorial.  Available at: https://youtu.be/LFIOQRqodLo?si=_GcLZv7kQ1WU7DNr (Accessed: 15 December 2023).

Advanced Search

Typing a sentence into a search engine or database will not search resources effectively.

Consider the key words and/ or phrases that describe what you want to search (e.g. social work).

Enter these in the search boxes provided.

You can use various search techniques to add in extra terms, combine multiple topics, narrow results down and get more useful results.  These include:

• Phrase search - including the terms in quotation marks to ensure they appear together (e.g. "adult learning styles").
• Boolean search:
  • AND (+) - narrows down the results. All connected terms must be included in the results (e.g.  students AND motivation).
  • OR (|) - broadens out the results. Either connected term can be included in the results (e.g. "gender roles" OR sex roles OR gender stereotypes).
  • NOT (-) narrows down the results. The second term must be excluded from the results (e.g. dementia NOT senile).
• Truncation symbol * can be helpful but should be used with caution.  For example, mana* will find manager, management and manages ... but also manatee or manakin.

Use the available filters, e.g. to the left of your results list, to refine your search by date range, language or content type, among others.

Extending the search beyond full text items

SocINDEX is set to offer full text results by default.  Abstracts or references for many more articles are available by deselecting the "Also search within the full text of the articles" option.

Some of these articles may be accessible in full via the listed One Search links. 

For others, a free copy may be available on the internet provided under an open access arrangement. Use Google Scholar to check. Type in one author's surname and add the title of the article in quotation marks (to look for the words in the same order). If the article is freely available, you will see a PDF or HTML notation to the right of the citation.

You may also be able to get the article by requesting an Interlibrary Loan (ILL).

An alternative to keyword searching is to use the in-built SocINDEX Subject terms - a menu option above the search boxes.

1. Click  on SocINDEX Subject terms.
2. Browse the Sociology Thesaurus to find relevant subject terms, or type in a subject term.
3. Click on the subject heading to see a subject breakdown. See accompanying Scope Notes for advice. 
4. Select term, then add to search using: OR, AND, or NOT , then click on "Add".  The term will appear in the search box.
5. Repeat as required, then click SEARCH, to see the results of the search in the SocINDEX database.

These results can then be combined with other search terms, and/ or further filtered, as above.

Go to Databases A-Z and select "SocINDEX".

Enter your student, or staff, email address and password when prompted by the Microsoft 365 login pages. 

Note: if you are accessing SocINDEX for the first time, you may first have to select the Institutional login icon.

1. Look for the Institutional login icon.
2. Select UK or UK Athens Higher Education.
3. Enter, or scroll to, University of the West of Scotland.
4. Enter your student (or staff) ID and password.

• In the "Select a field" dropdown, select Abstract to limit the search results to articles discussing your topic.
• The "UK and Ireland" geographic filter refers to where the journal is published so has limited relevance for individual articles.
• To save specific articles, or your searches, for viewing in later search sessions, sign up for a personal folder.  See  Create a personal account with EBSCO  for details.  
• Click the "Choose databases" option, above the search boxes, to simultaneously run your search on SocINDEX and another related database, e.g. Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection.  
• Follow EBSCO Publishing on Twitter - @EBSCO
• Watch videos on EBSCO Tutorials YouTube channel.

If you are experiencing difficulties accessing any resources or would like to discuss your searches, referencing or related matters, please contact library staff:

Email library@uws.ac.uk or log a call on the Self Service Portal.

• Self Service Portal

  All students and staff members have access to an online Self Service Portal to search through the answers to FAQs, log calls or place service requests and review the progress of any submitted requests.