Select a research topic and conduct pre-research: Look through textbooks, encyclopedias,

and handbooks to find a research topic that interests you. Write down keywords related to your
research topic. If you find a term and do not know what it means, look it up before you use it in your
search.

Resources:

The Sage handbook of sociology, edited by Craig Calhoun, Chris Rojek, and Bryan Turner. (HM
586 S24 2005)
Go to the A-to-Z list of Database on the library homepage, select Credo Reference. Browse for
online reference books under the subject heading “Social Sciences”.
Google Books: http://books.google.com/books?q=sociology

Brainstorm keywords. Develop a research statement based on your topic and brainstorm
keywords. Use keywords from your pre-research. For example:

Research statement: effect of increasing numbers of students with psychiatric disorders on college
campuses. Keywords:

college students mental health

university students increase

psychiatric disorders effects

Once you identify keywords to start off your search, you can locate at least one good article that will
lead you to other keywords, subject headings and references.

Searching for a book in the catalog from the Minuteman Library Network
http://library.minlib.net/search~S15

To conduct a subject or keyword search, enter a phrase in the search box and select “subject” or
“keyword” and “Framingham State College” in the drop down menus. To search for books in other
libraries, select “All locations” instead of Framingham State College. Here is a search for “college
students” and “mental health”:

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Once you find a book, write down the call number to help you find the book in the library.

All full-time and part-time Framingham State College students can borrow books from the Whittemore
Library, as well as other libraries within the Minuteman Library Network. Day and evening students
must register with the library to activate the student ID barcode or student ID number. Borrowing
privileges will expire when the student and are no longer affiliated with the college.

I recommend that you do not limit your search only to Framingham State College. You can always
request a book from another library within Minuteman Library Network. Usually books requested from
the network are received within the week. You can also order books from the Virtual Catalog, and the
WorldCat database. These requests take more time for you to receive your book.

When you register your library card, you are able to request books and articles through interlibrary loan
(ILL). You can request a book or article through interlibrary loan at
http://www.framingham.edu/wlibrary/illform.htm.Your request might take more than two weeks to
fulfill. Please contact Neil Conrad at 508.626.4690 for questions on ILL.

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Searching for scholarly peer-reviewed articles in the library databases:
For a listing of all of our research databases, select the A to Z link on the library webpage. You might
need to authenticate by entering your Blackboard account to access the library databases.
http://www.framingham.edu/wlibrary/finding/articles.htm.

Your virtual sociology subject guide:

http://libguides.framingham.edu/content.php?pid=26584&sid=192376.

These are the databases grouped by the category “Social Sciences”:

http://www.framingham.edu/wlibrary/finding/databasessocial.html

To start off with your research, first search for topics using your keywords these databases: SocIndex,
PsycInfo, and Psychology Collection

Sample search in EbscoHOST’s SocIndex: college student* AND psychiatric disorder AND
increase

If an article is not available full text in the database, select the link “Article Linker” to check if any other
library database has the article full text.

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Sample search in Infotrac’s Psychology Collection: (ke (college students)) And (ke (mental
health)) And TX (increase))

Notice the keywords supplied by the author or database vendor.

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Saving and organizing your research within EbscoHost databases:
The vendor EbscoHost provides the ability for researchers to save articles into their own personal
accounts.

Here is an example of saving an article into your EbscoHost account. Before you start your search, create
a “MyEbscoHost” account. I recommend using your Blackboard username and password to make it
easier to remember your account. After you create an account, begin your search. Save articles into your
account by selecting the link “Add to Folder”.

To view the saved article, go to “Folder” to access your “MyEbscoHost” account. I created a folder
“sociology research methods” by selecting “New”. I can then move the article into the newly created
folder.

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Searching for scholarly articles in Google Scholar:
Go to the library homepage and select the link A to Z List of Databases. Go to the GoogleScholar link. On
the GoogleScholar page, go to the link Scholar Preferences and make sure that Framingham State
College is listed as a preferred library.

If you use RefWorks, select RefWorks as a preferred Bibliographic Manager:

When creating a search in GoogleScholar, you do not need to link terms by “AND”. Place quotation
marks around phrases. Use OR to expand the search. For example: ("college student" OR "university
student") ("psychiatric disorder" OR "mental health") increase effect

Further instructions on using GoogleScholar: http://library.fscmedia.com/2008/02/16/try-google-

scholar/

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Sample search in GoogleScholar: "college student" "psychiatric disorder" increase

Check to see if the library has full text of the article by selecting, “Find it @ Framingham State”. For
other leads, select the links “Cited by” and “Related articles”.

Locating full-text journals online:

If you have a citation and would like to view any of the articles online, check to see if the journal is
available full-text by entering the name of the journal in the Full Text Journal Finder.
(http://pj8tr3fm5l.search.serialssolutions.com/)

If the journal is available online, the results will list the research databases that contain full text articles
of the journal.

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If an article is not available full-text, you can check to see if the library carries the journal in print by
looking up the title of the journal in the library catalog. For questions on our print journals, please
contact Deb Hogan, periodicals supervisor, at dhogan@framingham.edu.

Citation Guide:
Style Guide for Students: American Sociological Association

http://www.asanet.org/cs/root/topnav/sociology_depts/quick_style_guide

Questions? Call Millie Gonzalez, Reference and Electronic Resources Librarian at 508.626.4655 or
email me at 508.626.4655.