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Library Resources Online Faced with a research assignment, many students head straight for an online search engine. This may be a mistake. Most of what one finds on the web does not meet scholarly standards, and the reliability of the information you find there is often difficult to evaluate. There is no substitute for the library, but the good news is that an increasing proportion of library resources is now available online. You should familiarize yourself with the Rutgers Library website, which provides links for searching and finding what you need. There is also a useful tutorial, called SearchPath, at the Camden campus' Paul Robeson Library's website. Good bibliographic searching skills are an important part of the information literacy skills that all Sociology and Criminal Justice majors should master and carry forward. But keep in mind too that you must always critically evaluate the resources you locate, whether they are online or in print form, to determine their reliability and possible bias. Several bibliographical data bases and journals particularly useful for students in Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice are listed below. A number of these databases include the full text of articles. Remember, however, that to access these you must be authenticated as a Rutgers user, either by using a campus computer or by logging in with your netid and password. (See FAQ: Remote Access to Library Resources for more information.) The Online Card Catalog Use IRIS to search for books by name, author, or subject matter. You can also search for periodical titles, and if the periodical is available online, you will be able to click on its online URL to access it and the article you are looking for. (Note: in some instances, only the past five years or so are available online.) Searching Online Databases The Rutgers Libraries subscribe to a large number of online databases providing access to literally thousands of journals and other sources. We have selected a few of the most useful ones below for students in sociology, anthropology, and criminal justice. For a full list of the databases that Rutgers subscribes to, click here. Rutgers Libraries' Alphabetical List of Online Journals lists hundreds of journals available online, many with full-text capabilities. Academic Search Premier (EBSCO) includes a broad collection of academic journals in the social sciences, with full-text availability. However, the most recent issues are not available for some journals. In general, you should choose to access the pdf versions of articles, since this way you see how the article looks in the journal and you can get the page citations right. Note: if your instructor requires peer-reviewed articles only, simply check the "Scholarly (peer-reviewed) Journals" box when you set up your search. Ingenta includes a broad range of social science journals but is mainly limited to citations. However, once you have found an article you want, you can often find it online by searching IRIS or Rutgers Libraries' Alphabetical List of E-Journals for the journal title and then clicking on the URL for the online version. Anthropology Plus is the place to go for the broadest range of anthropological sources. Like SocioFile, it is limited to citations, but once you have found an article you want, you can often find it online by searching IRIS or Rutgers Libraries' Alphabetical List of E-Journals for the journal title and then clicking on the URL for the online version. Jstor allows you to search for full-text articles in over 100 academic journals, many of them in sociology, anthropology or criminal justice. However, journal issues of the past several years (usually 2-5 years) are not included. Still, this is an excellent place for "survey of the literature" searches for particular topics. Criminal Justice Abstracts is the best bet for criminal justice citations. It is limited to citations and abstracts, but once you have found an article you want, you can often find it online by searching IRIS or Rutgers Libraries' Alphabetical List of E-Journals for the journal title and then clicking on the URL for the online version. Lexis Nexis Academic is particularly good for the news and business press, which can be searched back 20 years. Most, but not all, of the citations are available in full-text. Contemporary Authors provides biographical sketches and lists of publications for many anthropologists, criminologists and sociologists, going back roughly to 1900. Check out everyone from Max Weber to faculty members Myra Bluebond-Langner and Ted Goertzel! Google Scholar is an academic search engine for the web that can be very useful for locating online citations and sometimes full-text versions of articles by particular authors. Try typing in the name of your favorite professor! You can also search for key words or combinations of key words.
Direct links to selected journals in anthropology, criminal justice, and sociology are provided below. You may access tables of contents and full-text versions of articles at all of these sites. If the data base is Jstor, the latest volumes will not be available, but on the other hand you will be able to access previous volumes right back to the journal's origin. Other databases and journals vary in whether full-text access is available for the most recent issues. Selected
Online Journals in Sociology and Anthropology Note: You need to be logged in at the Rutgers Libraries site before you can access most of these journals
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| February 27, 2008 |