Social Policy and Social Work: Journal Articles & Databases

Information about books, journals, databases and other useful social policy and social work resources.

What Is Peer Review?

Articles in peer reviewed journals have been assessed before publication by subject experts. This means they are the 'gold' standard in academic articles. You will be expected to use peer reviewed journal articles in your assignments.

Full Lists of Databases and eJournals

Follow these links and pick a subject to see a longer listing for your subject:

Pick your subject for a full list of eJournals

Pick your subject for a full list of databases

Journals, Databases, Bibliographies & Citations

The list below is a selection of relevant journal titles accessible through UCD subscriptions. Be sure to log in to the 'Online Tools' when accessing these resources off campus.

Below is a list of the key databases for Social Policy and Social Work research that are accessible through UCD subscriptions. Be sure to log in to the 'Online Tools' when accessing these resources off campus.

Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts (Proquest) This link opens in a new window
Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts (ASSIA) is a multidisciplinary bibliographic database that covers health, social services, psychology, sociology, economics, politics, race relations and education. ASSIA currently abstracts over 500 journals published in 16 different countries, including the UK and US. This database is particularly useful for research at the intersections between social science and health information.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Digital library of important scholarly archived journals spanning many subject disciplines. IReL provides access all archival journals and primary source collections.
National Criminal Justice Reference Service Abstracts (Proquest) This link opens in a new window
This database covers literature related to research, policy and practice in criminal and juvenile justice and drug control. Search over 189,000 U.S. and international publications, including federal, state and local government reports, books, research reports, journal articles, audiovisual presentations and unpublished research.
SAGE Research Methods Core Collection This link opens in a new window
SAGE Research Methods is a research methods tool created to help researchers, faculty and students from all disciplines with their research projects.
ScienceDirect Journals (Elsevier) This link opens in a new window
ScienceDirect contains over 25% of the world's science, technology and medicine full text and bibliographic information. Includes online eBooks, reference works, handbooks, book series, journal titles and backfiles.
Social Services Abstracts (Proquest) This link opens in a new window
This database provides 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 1,300+ serials publications and includes abstracts of journal articles and dissertations and citations to book reviews.
Sociological Abstracts (Proquest) This link opens in a new window
This database abstracts and indexes the international literature of sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. The database provides abstracts of journal articles and citations to book reviews drawn from over 1,800+ serials publications and also provides abstracts of books, book chapters, dissertations, conference papers and working papers. Cited references are included for many journal articles.
Violence & Abuse Abstracts (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
Includes bibliographic records covering essential areas related to violence and abuse, including family violence, sexual assault, emotional abuse, and other areas of key relevance to the discipline.
Web of Science (all databases) This link opens in a new window
Web of Science is a website that provides subscription-based access to multiple databases that provide comprehensive citation data for many different academic disciplines.

Bibliographies and Citations are excellent tools to assist your search for relevant journal articles, books, book reviews, conference proceedings and other resources that you may not find by direct searching.

International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (Proquest) This link opens in a new window
The International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS) is an essential online resource for social science and interdisciplinary research. IBSS includes over two million bibliographic references to journal articles and to books, reviews and selected chapters dating back to 1951. It is unique in its broad coverage of international material and incorporates over 100 languages and countries. Over 2,800 journals are regularly indexed and some 7,000 books are included each year. Abstracts are provided for half of all current journal articles and full text availability is continually increasing.
Oxford Bibliographies Online (OUP) This link opens in a new window
Oxford Bibliographies provides faculty and students alike with a seamless pathway to the most accurate and reliable resources for a variety of academic topics. Written and reviewed by academic experts, every article in our database is an authoritative guide to the current scholarship, containing original commentary and annotations.
Scopus (Elsevier) This link opens in a new window
Scopus is a comprehensive scientific, medical, technical and social science database containing all relevant literature. The platform also provides access to SciVal (access to SciVal requires registration, and is limited to on-campus only).
Social Sciences Citation Index (Web of Science) This link opens in a new window
The Social Sciences Citation Index is a multidisciplinary index to the journal literature of the social sciences.

Finding Articles on Reading Lists

Try this first

You can look up articles in OneSearch, our resource discovery service.

Put the exact title of the article in inverted commas.

If we can provide an instant link you will see the journal article displayed - click Full Text Online to access the text.

Next steps:

If we cannot provide a quick article link or it fails, then search for the name of the whole Journal instead of the article title e.g. "Journal of Common Market Studies"

For print-only journals you will be shown the location and shelfmark, so that you can locate the volume on the shelf

For electronic journals, click to link to the full journal and then navigate to the year, volume and issue that you want to see your article: or there may be an option to search for the article title provided by the online journal portal in which case key in the article in that box.