Social Sciences Research @ SMU Li Ka Shing Library

Guide has Moved

Research Librarian Soc Sc — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 07:21:46 +0000

This guide has moved to a new platform. The new URL is: http://researchguides.smu.edu.sg/socialsciences

Topic Overviews

Research Librarian Soc Sc — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 07:32:58 +0000

Here are some books that give topic overviews in the social arena:

Encyclopedia of aging and public health. Springer, 2008. [e-book]
Encyclopedia of sex and gender. Springer, 2004. [e-book]
Handbook of contemporary families. Sage, 2004. [e-book]
Handbook of families and poverty. Sage, 2008 [e-book]
Handbook of social problems. Sage, 2004. [e-book]
Handbook of social studies in health and medicine. Sage, 2004. [e-book]
Handbook of world families. Sage, 2005. [e-book]
Social science encyclopedia. 3rd ed. Routledge, 2004. H41 Soc [Reference on Level 3]

Slides for Literature Search

Research Librarian Soc Sc — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 09:38:53 +0000

I presented some sessions for SSRM001 on how to conduct a literature search and covered the different types of information that may be relevant. The slides are available to SMU community.

Finding Definitions

Research Librarian Soc Sc — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 06:02:23 +0000

The following online sources give definitions for a word or phrase:

Encyclopdia Britannica
Dictionary of the social sciences. Oxford, 2002

Finding Social Statistics

Research Librarian Soc Sc — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 09:07:52 +0000

If you are looking for statistics to back up your research or assignment, here are some databases to start your search.

World Development Indicators has a wide range of social and economic indicators
EIU Market Indicators & Forecasts is good for demographic and income data
CEIC Database has a wide range of countries and economic, business and social data
SourceOECD is good for economic and social data for OECD countries
Global Marketing Information Database is good for health, income, leisure, population & people (which includes education)
Global Development Finance focuses on external debt, debt flow and resource flow

Selected free websites with statistical data:

UN Statistical Database provides data on the various areas of interest to the United Nations, which includes demography, development, disability, gender, and social
World Health Organization provides health related data
World Bank Data and Statistics page also provides data on education, gender, health and poverty

For individual countries, the best place to start is the government statistical agency. Check the list provided by the US Census Bureau.

New Books by SOSS Faculty

Research Librarian Soc Sc — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 06:17:55 +0000

The faculty in the School of Social Sciences have recently published some books. Assistant Professor Hoon Chang Yau published Chinese Identity in Post-Suharto Indonesia: Culture, Politics and Media.

Associate Professor Brian Mooney published with Robert Imre and Benjamin Clarke Responding to terrorism: Political, philosophical and legal perspectives.

Click on the above hyperlinks to see the status of the book in the Library.

Find it @ SMU Library

Research Librarian Soc Sc — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 04:35:01 +0000

Want to find the full text article after you find the reference in a database? As part of the Li Ka Shing Library new Digital Library system, you have access to a link checker to bring you to the full text articles subscribed by the Library, which is called Find it @ SMU Library.

Currently, it is available in Academic Search Premier, PsycINFO (and other Ebscohost databases), Proquest Academic Research Library, Public Affars Information Service, Sociological Abstracts (and other CSA databases), Index to Legal Periodicals (on WilsonWeb). See Find Articles for links to the databases.

Do a search using keywords and in the results list you will see the link for Find it @ SMU Library.

Welcome

Research Librarian Soc Sc — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:26:52 +0000

You are starting your core course on Research Methods in the Social Sciences (SSRM). One of your major assignments for this course is your Term Paper.

The term paper is where you put into practice the theories learnt in SSRM.

You will need to do a literature review.

Write out your assignment topic.
Identify the key concepts.
Think of alternative terms for each key concept.
Construct a search statement. Use AND, OR, *, ( ). See page on Boolean for more information.
Choose a database to search, e.g. Academic Search Premier. See page on Find Articles for more databases.

Share your assignment topic and search statement using the Comments.