LibGuides: SOC 815: Classical Sociological Theory: Journal Articles

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Article Databases: Top Pick

Top Pick:

Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new window
1963- (abstracts from 1974-)
Sociological Abstracts provides access to the latest research in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences.
- Includes citations (and abstracts since 1974) for articles in over 1,500 journals;
- Draws information from an international selection of journals, serials, conference papers, books, and dissertations.

More Article Databases

Topics in sociology often overlap with complementary areas of inquiry. To that end, it may be useful to search within a multidisiplinary index, or other subject specific indexes. The list below is NOT COMPREHENSIVE and is intended as a starting point to direct you towards indexes that are often relevant to sociology topics. Be sure to browse in the e-resources for a complete listing of all MSU article databases.

Multidisciplinary Indexes

ProQuest (All databases) This link opens in a new window
Scopus This link opens in a new window
Find citations for a broad range of scientific literature (including patents) and track, analyze and visualize citations by document, author, zip code, or institution.
Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Includes the Institute for Scientific Information Citation Indexes - Arts and Humanities, Social Science, and Science. It indexes science, social sciences, and arts and humanities information from nearly 9,300 of the most prestigious, high impact research journals in the world.

Google Scholar
A free and popular search engine that provides broad coverage of the scholarly literature across many different disciplines. For more information on GS's pros/cons, plus getting MSU access links, scroll to the section of this page about Google Scholar.

General Social Sciences

International Bibliography of the Social Sciences This link opens in a new window
Anthropology is a core discipline covered by this database. Journal and book coverage draws significantly on the collection of the Library of the London School of Economics and Political Science. Over 50 percent of journals indexed are published outside the US or the UK; 25 percent of references are in languages other than English. Coverage dates back to 1951.
Social Sciences Full Text This link opens in a new window
Coverage: 1983-present. Social Sciences Full Text provides access to a wide assortment of the most important English-language journals published in the social sciences. This resource provides detailed indexing for over 625 periodicals dating back as far as 1983—nearly 400 of which are peer-reviewed. EBSSCOhost platform.

Other subject databases

Criminal Justice

Criminal Justice Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Contains hundreds of in-depth abstracts of current books, book chapters, journal articles, government reports, and dissertations published worldwide. Criminal Justice Abstracts also offers extensive coverage of new books from scholarly and commercial publishers and valuable reports from public and private agencies in many nations.

Education

ERIC (on ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
A U.S. national bibliographic database covering the journal and research literature in the field of education. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, ERIC blends two files: Current Index to Journals in Education (CIJE), covering the published journal literature from over 775 periodicals and Resources in Education (RIE), covering other research document literature, such as conference papers, books, theses, and research reports.

Environmental Studies

Environment Complete This link opens in a new window
According to EBSCO, Environment Complete™ offers deep coverage in applicable areas of agriculture, ecosystem ecology, energy, renewable energy sources, natural resources, marine & freshwater science, geography, pollution & waste management, environmental technology, environmental law, public policy, social impacts, urban planning, and more. Environment Complete contains more than 1,957,000 records from more than 1,700 domestic and international titles going back to the 1940s (including 1,125 active core titles) as well as more than 120 monographs. The database also contains full text for more than 680 journals, including many of the most used journals in the discipline, such as Environment (back to 1975), Ecologist, Conservation Biology, etc. Additionally, Environment Complete provides full text for 120 monographs, such as Encyclopedia of World Environmental History (3 volumes), Advances in Water Treatment & Environmental Management, etc.

Family Studies & Human Ecology

Family & Society Studies Worldwide This link opens in a new window
Coverage: 1970 - present
Family & Society Studies Worldwide™ (FSSW) is a core resource providing the most comprehensive coverage of research, policy, and practice literature in the fields of Family Science, Human Ecology, Human Development, and Social Welfare. FSSW covers popular issues and meets the requirements of professionals in all fields of social work, social science and family practice. Coverage spans from 1970 to the present, indexing publications from a wide range of social science disciplines including anthropology, sociology, psychology, demography, health sciences, education, economics, law, history and social work.

Gender Studies

Gender Studies Database This link opens in a new window
Gender Studies Database combines NISC's popular Women's Studies International and Men's Studies databases with the coverage of sexual diversity issues. GSD covers the full spectrum of gender-engaged scholarship inside and outside academia. The source documents indexed include professional journals, conference papers, books, book chapters, government reports, discussion and working papers, theses & dissertations and other sources. Several hundred links provide access to carefully selected and important websites. This database includes more than 696,750 records with coverage spanning from 1972 and earlier to present.

Gerontology

AgeLine This link opens in a new window
AgeLine focuses exclusively on the population aged 50+ and issues of aging. AgeLine is the premier source for the literature of social gerontology and includes aging-related content from the health sciences, psychology, sociology, social work, economics, and public policy. This database indexes over 600 journals, books, book chapters, reports, dissertations, consumer guides, and educational videos. Publication coverage is from 1978 to the present, with selected coverage from 1966-1977.

Political Science

Political Science Complete This link opens in a new window
Political Science Complete™ (PSC) contains full text for over 530 journals, and indexing and abstracts for more than 2,900 journals (including top-ranked scholarly journals), many of which are unique to the product. PSC has a worldwide focus, reflecting the globalization of contemporary political discourse. The database also features over 340 full-text reference books and monographs, and over 38,000 full-text conference papers, including those of the International Political Science Association (Description as of January 2012).
Left Index This link opens in a new window
The Left Index™ is a complete guide to the diverse literature of the left, with an emphasis on political, economic, social and culturally engaged scholarship inside and outside academia. Other topics covered include the labor movement, ecology & environment, race & ethnicity, social & cultural theory, sociology, art & aesthetics, philosophy, history, education, law and globalization. Coverage includes more than 272,000 citations and abstracts (with some full text) and spans from 1982 and earlier to present. Historically significant early Left publications such as The People (est. NY 1891) and The Class Struggle (1931 - 1937) along with classic texts by Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, Engels and others, written in the formative years of the Left are also covered.

Public Policy

PAIS International This link opens in a new window
Information in PAIS International and PAIS Archive covers topical public and social issues and the making and evaluating of public policy. Worldwide in geographic scope, PAIS International and PAIS Archive indexes publications in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish that deal with public affairs.

PAIS Archive is a retrospective database supplementing PAIS International containing more than 1.2 million records covering the years 1915-1976.

Psychology

PsycINFO including PsycARTICLES This link opens in a new window
Contains summaries of the world's journal literature, of dissertations and technical reports, and of English-language chapters and books in psychology and related disciplines. No full text content within PsycInfo, but there are links to full text in other databases, including PsycARTICLES. Also includes psychology articles from related disciplines such as sociology, linguistics, education, medicine, law, physiology, business, psychiatry, and anthropology.

Social Work/Social Services

Social Services Abstracts This link opens in a new window
1980-present
Bibliographic coverage of current research focused on social work, human services and related areas including social welfare, social policy and community development. The database abstracts and indexes over 1,500 serials publications and includes abstracts of journal articles and dissertations, and citations to book reviews.

Urban Studies

Urban Studies Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Urban Studies Abstracts includes bibliographic records related to urban studies, including urban affairs, community development, urban history, and other areas of relevance to the discipline. The index contains more than 45,000 records, selected from both scholarly journals and book chapters within the discipline. This online database indexes the full backrun of the former paper abstract "Sage Urban Studies Abstracts", taking coverage back to 1972.

Article FAQs

How can I access the full text of an article I see listed in an index (e.g. Sociological Abstracts)?

If the full-text of the article is not available in the index you used to locate the citation, use the "Find Text @ MSU" link to automatically search for the full-text.

If Find Text @ MSU does not automatically connect you to the full-text, do a journal/periodical title search in the library catalog to double-check our holdings.

If MSU does not subscribe to the journal in print or electronic, use Inter-Library Loan to request a copy of the article.

Distance students: If you see that MSU has the journal in print, use ILLiad to request a copy.

How do I find the full text if I just have an article citation?

Look up the title of the journal where the article is published in the library catalog. Then, access the article via our print or electronic journal holdings.

For a complete step-by-step through the process go to the full tutorial on Locating a Known Journal Article from a Citation.

I'm not finding any good articles on my topic...what should I do?

Ask a Librarian, or consult this brief tutorial on how to search with a purpose.

What kind of advanced search commands can I use in the library indexes?

View this document on Advanced Searches for an explanation of various advanced search commands.

MSU Libraries

Course Guides

SOC 815: Classical Sociological Theory: Journal Articles