Subject Research: Human Services:

Subject Research: Human Services

DSM-5

Book Collections

Books on the Web

Local Libraries (WorldCat)

How to start your human services research: 

1. Choose your topic.
2. Select a human services database or use the search box at the top of this page. 

    

   Note: SocINDEX is a great database to start with.
3. Type in keywords or search terms related to your topic (one concept per search field).
4. Click Search. 
5. You can now refine your results by using limiters (full text, peer review, publication date, methodology).
6. Or further refine your search by using subject terms and Boolean operators. 
7. Once you have found an article, get the full text. 
   • What if I get zero results?

Learn more about Library Skills

When working on your literature review, you will read and look at hundreds of articles, books, and other materials. However, you will not include all of them in your final literature review. This does not mean you've wasted your time looking at unnecessary articles! Rather, this review of the literature is what helps you become an expert in your field.

• Scope of the Literature Review
• Search Skills
• Collecting Resources
• Locate Full Text
• Organize Your Literature

Learn more about the Literature Review process

Tests and measures are tools that can be used for diagnosing, researching, and assessing phenomena in the social sciences, education, health, and other areas.

Here are the next steps in identifying, searching, and reviewing Tests & Measurements:

• Identify Tests using the Library Databases
• Find Tests in Dissertations
• Find Tests on the Internet
• Reliability & validity

Learn more about Tests & Measures

To begin, reference materials are a great discovery tool for identifying theorists and theories. You can either search or browse our entire SAGE encyclopedia collection:

Once you have some ideas on theories and theorists, you can take that information and find related theories and theorists. Research articles and dissertations can provide a gateway for discovery of theorists and theories. Below is a list of recommended databases and demonstrations of how to begin this type of research.

• Research Databases by Subject
• A-to-Z List of Research Databases

Learn more about Theories & Theorists

When you begin your search, you will need to determine if you need prepared statistics or raw datasets. The term statistics refers to data that has already been analyzed.

Locating Datasets

If you want to do your own analysis, then you need a dataset. You can find secondary datasets (data that has been collected by someone else) in sources like the ICPSR database (Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Science Research Datasets) or the U.S. Census.

• Statistics & Data by Topic: Some data and statistics are available freely online from government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and academic institutions.
• ​ICPSR, which contains raw datasets, is a subscription database that is available through the Office of Research and Doctoral Services.

Data and Statistics in Peer-Reviewed Articles

You can search the Library's research databases for peer-reviewed articles that use statistics to support a position or argument. You may have to try several different searches to find relevant articles. Peer-reviewed articles can be very valuable if you are struggling to locate statistics or data from a government site or database. The Statistics in Articles page includes instructions that show you how to search for articles in the Library's research databases.

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