General Social Sciences

Facts and Background Information
Selected print and electronic encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks, etc.
Books
Locate items in the library catalog and other libraries.
Articles
Use indexes to search for articles in journals, proceedings, etc.
Primary Sources
Websites
Recommended academic, professional, and learned societies sites, and more.
Contact a Librarian

Below are a few major, frequently used sources for the study of the social sciences. See also the research guides to the Humanities, to Film, and to Classical Studies.

Please consult with a reference librarian for directions to many sources in your topic. Internet resources require a Tufts I.D. number for off-campus access (authorized users statement).

 

Facts and Background Information     [back to top]

Subject specific reference materials can help you to gain broad-based knowledge of your field, through vocabulary, factual information, additional references, and bibliographies. Some suggested print sources:

Dictionary of Qualitative Inquiry

Guide to Social Science Resources in Women's Studies

Handbook of Research Methods : a Guide for Practitioners and Students in the Social Sciences

Dictionary of Statistics & Methodology : a Nontechnical Guide for the Social Sciences

Doing a subject search in the catalog allows you to retrieve specific types of sources. For example:

Social Sciences - Encyclopedias

Social Sciences - Dictionaries

In addition, the following electronic resources provide valuable information:

Britannica Online and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (How to search)

Maps on File (Facts on File) (How to search)
Over 500 reproducible country maps that include major cities, borders labeled with neighboring countries, major rivers and roads, scale of miles and kilometers, and (a) North indicator. Also includes recent global demographic, economic, political, and environmental statistics.

Find Books     [back to top]

You can search for books about general social sciences in the library catalog in several ways:

Keyword Searching
Type in words that describe your topic, for example:

Social Sciences and France

Economics and History

Subject searching
If you know the Library of Congress subject heading used to describe your area of research, you can search for a particular subject. If you don’t know the Library of Congress Subject Headings, speak to a librarian for help. Some examples of subject searches are:

Anthropology

Early childhood education

Macroeconomics

Skinner, B. F. (Burrhus Frederic), 1904-

Books on psychology can be found under the call number range BF1-990; books on psychiatry can be found under the call number range RC435-571. Books on the auxiliary sciences of history (numismatics, genealogy, biography and archaeology) can be found under the call number range C1-CT9999. Books on world history can be found under D1-DX301. Books on the history of the Americas can be found in the range E1 - F3799. Anthropology books are found in the range GN1-890. Economics books can be found in the range H1-HJ9940 and books on sociology in the range HM401-HX970.9. Books on political science are found in the range J1-JZ6350, and books on law can be found in the range K1-KZD5680.2. Education books are found in the range L7-LT501.

Find books in other libraries

To locate books in other Boston Library Consortium libraries and request them, use the Boston Library Consortium Catalogs. To locate books in many libraries throughout the world, use WorldCat.

Find Articles     [back to top]

For more information on searching article indexes, see our Database Searching Tips (also available in PDF).

Alt-PressWatch (How to search)
Alt-PressWatch full text articles from magazines and journals of the alternative and independent press. Coverage includes a broad range of critical issues confronting contemporary society, including ecology and the environment, grassroots organizing, labor, indigenous peoples, public policy, genetics, and much more.

AP Images
AP Images is a database of every news event covered by the Associated Press for the last 150 years; it contains over 3 million news photographs from the 1840s through the present. All images may be downloaded and used for educational purposes ONLY.

ArchivesUSA (How to search)
Information about primary source materials from U.S. manuscript repositories, with detailed indexes of manuscript and other special collections.

Biography and Genealogy Master Index (How to search)
Comprehensive index to nearly 12 million biographical sketches in more than 2700 volumes and editions of current and retrospective reference books, covering both contemporary and historical figures throughout the world. NEW FEATURE: A complete list of sources indexed is now available by using the Extended Search.

Blackwell-Synergy
An electronic information service provided by Blackwell-Synergy providing access to their e-journals (650+). It can be organized into Subject collections, or as an alphabetic title list. Subjects cover the sciences, healthcare, the humanities and the social sciences.

Congressional Universe
A major online resource for information on all aspects of Congressional work. Includes hearing transcripts, committee reports, bills, committee prints, the Congressional Record, the Federal Register, the Code of Federal Regulations, and public laws.

Current Contents Connect. Institute for Scientific Information, 2001-
A current awareness database with a multidisciplinary focus, covering over 8,000 of the world's scholarly journals grouped into the following broad disciplinary areas: Agriculture, Biology, & Environmental Sciences; Art & Humanities; Clinical Medicine; Engineering, Computing & Technology; Life Sciences; Physical, Chemical & Earth Sciences; Social & Behavioral Sciences. Also included is access to ISI Current Web Contents.

Dissertation Abstracts

Ethnic NewsWatch (How to search)
Ethnic NewsWatch is a full-text collection of newspapers and periodicals from the ethnic, minority and Native American press. The database allows both full-text and indexed searching. Search pages are available in English and Spanish.

Expanded Academic ASAP
Articles from more than 1,500 scholarly, trade, and general-interest publications, including national news and commentary. Coverage is from 1980 to current and is updated daily. Some full text is available.

FirstSearch

GenderWatch (How to search)
GenderWatch is a full-text collection of international sources, including journals, special reports and conference proceedings on a wide range of women's issues. It includes archival materials dating back to the 1970s. GenderWatch allows both full-text and indexed searching.

GPO Monthly Catalog

International Bibliography of the Social Sciences
The IBSS has more than two million references to articles and books going back to 1951 in the social sciences. It is produced by the London School of Economics and Political Science.

LexisNexis
Includes articles from major American newspapers and regional papers, statistics, company financial information, country and state profiles, and medical information. Major source for federal case law and statutes, the U.S. Code, law reviews, and state legal research.

PAIS
Print index to articles, books, conference proceedings, government documents, book chapters, and statistical directories about public affairs and international relations.

PAIS (Public Affairs Information Service) (1957-2000)
Print index covers books, periodical articles, government publications, reports of public and private agencies relating to public policy, international relations, etc.

Policy Research Online File (How to search)
Detailed, current access to research and analysis from think tanks, university research programs, research organizations and publishers, with non-partisan information on a wide range of domestic and international public policy issues.

Science Direct 1996-
A database of over 1,000 journal titles, covering core journals in the life, physical, technical and social sciences. Full text access is available for those titles subscribed to by Tufts. For full-text access to those titles which Tufts does not subscribe, consult a librarian. Table of Contents and Abstracts are available for all titles.

Social Sciences Citation Index 1974-
Provides author, subject and citation access to journal articles and book reviews in the social sciences. Coverage from 1974. Part of Web of Science.

Social Sciences Index. H.W. Wilson, 1964-
[PRINT. Tisch Reference Indexes [SOC] AI3 .R47]

Sociological Abstracts (How to search) 1963-
Provides citations and abstracts from over 2600 journals, dissertations, conference papers, books and book reviews. Updated six times a year.

Statistical Universe 1973-
Statistical information from the U.S. government, including the Statistical Abstract of the United States. American Statistics Index, Statistical Reference Index, and Index to International Statistics.

WorldCat
WorldCat is a catalog of materials held by libraries worldwide, including books, periodicals, sound recordings, musical scores, videos, manuscripts, and maps.

Electronic journals

Periodicals held by Tufts are listed in the catalog. Holdings in all formats are unified in one record, and most entries for journals held in digital format contain a hyperlink to the source; searches in the catalog enable one to follow these links directly. A supplementary list of electronic journals is on the Tisch homepage under Electronic Journals. For an example of a catalog search for a journal, set the catalog’s Type of Search to "Journal Title," and type in Social Science Research.

Many social science journals held in digital format are parts of Project Muse or JSTOR. Others can be found in Science Direct, Blackwell-Synergy or Wiley Interscience. Journals published by the American Psychological Association are available through OVID. Although these databases include search engines for the journals they contain, the indexes listed above are the most comprehensive and authoritative sources for the literature of the discipline, and frequently link directly to the journal article itself.

Primary Sources     [back to top]

iPOLL Databank
The iPOLL Databank from the Roper Center Public Opinion Archives focuses on national scope surveys and contains not only the complete question text and responses to half a million questions from as far back as 1935, but also information such as study abstracts, links to questionnaires, datasets and citation information where available.

Websites     [back to top]

Tufts University Department of Child Development

Tufts University Department of Economics

Tufts University Department of Education

Tufts University Department of History

Tufts University Department of Political Science

Tufts University Department of Psychology

Tufts University Department of Sociology/Anthropology

Tufts University Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning

Contact a Librarian     [back to top]

Christopher Barbour. Contact for questions about library collections.
For reference questions and instruction requests, contact:
Connie Reik for Anthropology, Economics, Government Publications and Information Resources, History, Law, Political Science, Sociology, and Women's Studies.
Regina Raboin for Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning.
Laurie Sabol for Psychology, Education, and Child Development.

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