Subject Guides: Sociology: SOCI 315 Fall 2022

Welcome

This guide provides help finding sources for the Fall 2022 SOCI 315 Final Research Assignment.

Please refer to your assignment instructions for additional requirements and details.

Finding Articles

You need a minimum of four peer-reviewed articles to complete your assignment.

IMPORTANT NOTE: It can take years to get published, so you may need to explore related areas of research rather than your specific, more current topic. For instance, although there had been research on public reactions to pandemics like H1N1 or Ebola for years, when Covid first happened, there was no peer-reviewed sources on the topic yet. If you wanted to research reactions to Covid at that time, you would have had to use older research on previous pandemics to inform what was then a new area of investigation.

Watch One Perfect Source for additional clarity on how to approach your topic when searching.

Useful databases for finding articles for this class include:

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Includes indexes, abstracts, articles, and videos in a variety of subjects, but especially the following: biology, chemistry, education, engineering, humanities, physics, psychology, religion and theology, and sociology.
Coverage and Currency: 1990 to present
Access: Access limited to Grant MacEwan University IP addresses. Remote login with a MacEwan network user ID and password.
Conditions of Use: Use of this database is restricted to members of the MacEwan University community and to users physically present in the Library. It is the responsibility of each user to ensure that they use this database for individual, non-commercial, educational or research purposes only, and do not systematically download or retain substantial portions of information.
Canadian Business and Current Affairs This link opens in a new window
Multi-disciplinary Canadian resource that incorporates content from three databases: CBCA Business, CBCA Education, and CBCA Reference and Current Events. It includes scholarly journals, popular magazines, trade journals, newspapers, and broadcast transcripts, some of which are in French.
Coverage and Currency: 1982 to present
Access: Access limited to Grant MacEwan University IP addresses. Remote login with a MacEwan network user ID and password.
Conditions of Use: Use of this database is restricted to members of the MacEwan University community and to users physically present in the Library. It is the responsibility of each user to ensure that they use this database for individual, non-commercial, educational or research purposes only, and do not systematically download or retain substantial portions of information.
CINAHL Plus with Full Text This link opens in a new window
Provides full text for nursing and allied health journals. Includes point-of-care information with evidence-based care sheets and quick lessons providing overviews of disease and conditions.
Coverage and Currency: 1937 to present
Access: Access limited to Grant MacEwan University IP addresses. Remote login with a MacEwan network user ID and password.
Conditions of Use: Use of this database is restricted to members of the MacEwan University community and to users physically present in the Library. It is the responsibility of each user to ensure that they use this database for individual, non-commercial, educational or research purposes only, and do not systematically download or retain substantial portions of information.
Communication & Mass Media Complete This link opens in a new window
Provides the full text of articles, essays, and reviews in the research areas of communication, mass media, linguistics, rhetoric, language, logic, and more.
Coverage and Currency: 1900 to present
Access: Access limited to Grant MacEwan University IP addresses. Remote login with a MacEwan network user ID and password.
Conditions of Use: Use of this database is restricted to members of the MacEwan University community and to users physically present in the Library. It is the responsibility of each user to ensure that they use this database for individual, non-commercial, educational or research purposes only, and do not systematically download or retain substantial portions of information.
Criminal Justice Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Provides access to major journals in criminology and related disciplines. Topics include crime trends, prevention projects, correction, juvenile delinquency, police, courts, offenders, victims, and sentencing.
Coverage and Currency: 1910 to present
Access: Access limited to Grant MacEwan University IP addresses. Remote login with a MacEwan network user ID and password.
Conditions of Use: Use of this database is restricted to members of the MacEwan University community and to users physically present in the Library. It is the responsibility of each user to ensure that they use this database for individual, non-commercial, educational or research purposes only, and do not systematically download or retain substantial portions of information.
LGBT Life with Full Text This link opens in a new window
Provides full text access to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) Life database including important and historically significant LGBT journals, magazines, regional newspapers, and monographs. Also contains a specialized LGBT thesaurus.
Coverage and Currency: 1917 to present
Access: Access limited to Grant MacEwan University IP addresses. Remote login with a MacEwan network user ID and password.
Conditions of Use: Use of this database is restricted to members of the MacEwan University community and to users physically present in the Library. It is the responsibility of each user to ensure that they use this database for individual, non-commercial, educational or research purposes only, and do not systematically download or retain substantial portions of information.
SocINDEX with Full Text This link opens in a new window
Covers sociology and related fields, including anthropology, criminology, economic development, social work, politics, religion, and more. Topics include abortion, anthropology, criminology, criminal justice, cultural sociology, demography, economic development, ethnic and racial studies, marriage and family, politics, religion, rural sociology, social psychology, social structure, social work, sociological theory, sociology of education, substance abuse, urban studies, violence, welfare, and more.
Coverage and Currency: 1895 to present
Access: Access limited to Grant MacEwan University IP addresses. Remote login with a MacEwan network user ID and password.
Conditions of Use: Use of this database is restricted to members of the MacEwan University community and to users physically present in the Library. It is the responsibility of each user to ensure that they use this database for individual, non-commercial, educational or research purposes only, and do not systematically download or retain substantial portions of information.
Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Provides citations of scholarly journals, dissertations and theses, books, and conference proceedings covering the international literature of sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioural sciences.
Coverage and Currency: 1952 to present
Access: Access limited to Grant MacEwan University IP addresses. Remote login with a MacEwan network user ID and password.
Conditions of Use: Use of this database is restricted to members of the MacEwan University community and to users physically present in the Library. It is the responsibility of each user to ensure that they use this database for individual, non-commercial, educational or research purposes only, and do not systematically download or retain substantial portions of information.

For additional options, visit the Library's Find a Database list.

Database Keyword Searcing Tips:

Use "Quotes" for phrases:
- "social media" "content analysis" "facial recognition" "First Nations"
Use AND between words to find different concepts:
- "eating disorders" AND blogs AND identity
Use OR between words to find similar concepts/synonyms:
- teens OR teenagers OR adolescents OR adolescence OR youth
- "social media" OR Facebook OR Twitter OR Instagram

Examples combining these techniques:
("social media" OR Facebook OR Twitter OR Instagram) AND "content analysis" AND (COVID OR SARS OR H1N1 OR pandemic OR ebola)

(news OR journalism) AND (COVID OR SARS OR H1N1 OR pandemic OR ebola)

Engaging with the Literature - Some Tips

Limit Results

When searching, use the search facets to the left of results to limit to peer-reviewed (scholarly) journals.

Also limit by publication date (e.g., 2012-2022) to find more recent works.

Find the Most Relevant Studies

Aim to locate the four most relevant articles on your topic. To do this, try the following:

Modify your keywords and try a variety of Library databases (noted above).
As you search, initially just skim through the titles and abstracts of articles that look interesting rather than reading entire works.
Once you find one useful article, look at its reference list to see if it cites other relevant studies you can use. (Search for these referenced works by title in the main Library search to see if we have access.)
Add "content analysis" to your keyword search terms. There may be an existing study similar to the one you are embarking on that you can build on. (If there isn't, that's OK too because your study will serve to fill a gap in what we know about your topic.)

Final Two Articles - Checklist

The four articles you use in your assignment should meet the following criteria:

Publication date: Published in the last ten years. You want to build on the latest, greatest findings in your area of interest.
Peer-reviewed: Published in an academic journal that has other academics review research before it is published. Using Library databases (see above) is the easiest way to locate these works.
Original research: Articles should be reporting results from an original research study rather than only providing a review of other people's research. The format of these articles will be similar to Part B of your assignment, with an intro, methods section, results, discussion, and references.
Relevance: This varies by topic. Ultimately, just try to find articles most relevant to your topic. For instance, an article reporting results of a study on social media reactions to H1N1 will be much more relevant than a study on medical treatments. If you're focusing on Twitter reactions, try to find other studies that investigated Twitter if you can. If you are focusing on Canada, or North America, try to find studies that did the same.

Watch Peer Review in 3 Minutes to learn more about why peer-reviewed articles are considered reliable sources to inform your own research.

APA Citations

In your assignment, be sure to reference all your sources in APA format.

Citations should follow this example:

In-text: (Thirsk et al., 2022, p. 1409).

Reference entry:

Thirsk, L. M., Stahlke, S., Perry, B., & Gordon, B. (2022). #Morethanavisitor: Experiences of COVID-19 visitor restrictions in Canadian long-term care facilities. Family Relations, 71(4), 1408-1427. https://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12712

For more information and examples, visit the Library's APA Citation Guide.

Data Source Considerations

Social Media Platforms

Facebook
Enter a keyword then filter results using options to the left (e.g., by location, by date). You can also filter to just Posts, People, Photos, etc. using options across the top of results. Remember that Facebook will only show public content and anything shared with you by FB friends.
Instagram
Will suggest most popular hashtags when you start typing in the search box, as well as specific user accounts. After hitting search for a given hashtag, you can browse most recent posts in order to search content by date.
reddit.com - Search
Enter a keyword then use available options to sort results. A search for Edmonton, for example, will also suggest Subreddits/user groups within Reddit, like one devoted to posts only about Edmonton topics. These can also be sorted by newest posts, oldest posts, and Top/most popular posts.
Twitter (Advanced Search)
Allows you to search for specific words or hashtags in a given time period (e.g., posts using #yegtransit between March 17-19, 2022).

News Sites

If doing a content analysis of user comments on news stories, try searching and browsing individual news websites like CBC News and the Edmonton Journal.

The following databases allow you to search across news stories in multiple news sources at one time:

Canadian Newsstream This link opens in a new window
Covers news and public interest events as reported in major Canadian newspapers, including the Edmonton Journal and the Calgary Herald. It also includes the electronic backfile for most Canadian newspapers and full access to articles, columns, editorials, and features that are updated daily.
Coverage and Currency: 1970s to present
Access: Access limited to Grant MacEwan University IP addresses. Remote login with a MacEwan network user ID and password.
Conditions of Use: Use of this database is restricted to members of the MacEwan University community and to users physically present in the Library. It is the responsibility of each user to ensure that they use this database for individual, non-commercial, educational or research purposes only, and do not systematically download or retain substantial portions of information.

Google >> News
After doing a Google keyword search, select "News" from above the results. Next select Tools to limit results by a specific date range, or sort results newest to oldest. Individual news sites may or may not include user comments below news stories.

Need Help?

Need immediate research help? Have a quick question?

Use Library Chat to consult online with a librarian who can help with finding and citing appropriate sources.

Not finding any articles on your topic?

Email Nicolle to set up an appointment in person, by phone, or video conferencing with the Sociology subject librarian.

Need writing help?

Access the Writing Centre during their drop-in hours - online or in-person - or schedule an appointment with a writing tutor by going to the Writing Centre's services page at https://library.macewan.ca/writing-centre/services.

Questions about the assignment and how to do a content analysis?

Contact your instructor.

Sociology

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