Internet resources for

social
research

: social sciences
www.intute.ac.uk/socialsciences/
Internet resources for social research
The best of the Web
Welcome to this guide to the best of
the Web for Social Research.
In these pages you will find a selection
of some of the most useful websites for
students, lecturers and researchers of
Social Research.
The selection is by no means exhaustive,
but it should give you a flavour of the
range of resources available on the
Internet for education and research.
Supporting your Internet
research
For those interested in exploring the wider
Web, we offer free Internet search and
training services for further and higher
education via Intute – details of these can
be found at the end of the guide.
Contents
Social research methods
Bibliographic databases
Journals
Papers/articles/reports
Datasets
Educational materials
Organisations and societies
Research projects/centres 10
Government bodies 11
Mailing lists 12
Cover image right:
Liverpool victory. Copyright: Getty Images,
available from the Education Image Gallery:
http://edina.ac.uk/eig/
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 Internet resources for social research

Social research methods

Keep up to date on methods of conducting research

ESRC Research Methods Programme

http://www.ccsr.ac.uk/methods/
The ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) Research Methods
Programme aims to raise the standards of research methods across the UK
social science community. The Programme is built around a range of projects,
located across a number of UK higher education institutions, that attempt to
foster, support and promote new research, methodological understanding and
good practice. The Programme is based in the Centre for Census and Survey
Research at the University of Manchester. The site provides access to project
information, publications, events listings, training and course information and
current news.

ESRC National Centre for Research Methods

http://www.ncrm.ac.uk/
The centre works in collaboration with the ESRC Research Methods Programme
to provide a focal point for the identification, development and delivery of a
national training programme for research methods. Details of publications and
training events are available from the site.

Research Methods Knowledge Base

http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/
The Research Methods Knowledge Base is a free Web-based textbook offering
an introductory course in applied social research methods, created by Bill
Trochim, a Professor in the Department of Policy Analysis and Management at
Cornell University. It covers the theory and practice of research, and topics such
as defining a research question, sampling, measurement, research design and
data analysis.

SRM Online
http://www.srm-online.nl/
An excellent database of references to literature on social and behavioural
research methodology, statistical analysis and related computer software.

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 Internet resources for social research

Bibliographic databases
Journal articles, books, theses, conference papers and reports are often indexed
in bibliographic databases, so a simple search of these can help you to locate
key literature on your research subject.

Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts (ASSIA)

http://www.csa.com/factsheets/assia-set-c.php
Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts on the Web is a database containing
over 375,000 abstracts from over 500 journals worldwide covering health, social
services, psychology, sociology, economics, politics, race relations and education.
The database is available through Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA); contact
your library to see if your institution provides access to this service.

COPAC
http://copac.ac.uk/
A good starting point for literature searching, COPAC is a freely available
bibliographic catalogue of 24 of the major university research libraries in the UK
as well as the British Library, National Library of Wales and National Library of
Scotland. Users can connect to the Web interface or connect directly to the
database using bibliographic management software to download references
directly to their computers.

International Bibliography of the Social

Sciences (IBSS)
http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/IBSS/
IBSS contains the bibliographic detail of articles,
books, reviews and the chapters from selected
multi-authored monographs. The database
contains over 2 million records covering
publications appearing between 1951 and the
present day. The database is free to all members
of UK higher and further education institutions
and access is provided through Athens.

http://www.lse.ac.uk/ collections/IBSS/

2 www.intute.ac.uk/socialsciences/
 Internet resources for social research

ISI Web of Knowledge Service for UK Education

http://wok.mimas.ac.uk/
Web of Knowledge has several databases of interest to social researchers,
including the Social Sciences Citation Index: a large bibliographic database of
a wide range of journals, the Journal Citation Reports: which provides
statistical data on the relative importance of journals within a subject area and
the social science and humanities version of ISI Proceedings: an index of social
science related conferences. You will need to check if your institution subscribes
to this service. Please note that in order to use the service your Web browser
must be configured to accept cookies.

zetoc Electronic Table of Contents

http://zetoc.mimas.ac.uk/
zetoc provides access to over 20 million journal
articles and conference records from a wide
range of subject areas in science, technology,
medicine, engineering, business, law, finance
and the humanities. The zetoc alert service
offers a regular email update of tables of
contents or articles that match your subject
interests.

Index to Theses
http://www.theses.com/
A searchable listing of theses, some with
abstracts, accepted for higher degrees by
universities in Great Britain and Ireland since
1716. The database covers all subjects
http://www.theses.com/
including the social sciences.

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 Internet resources for social research

Journals
Scholarly journals are increasingly available via the Internet, though there can be
restrictions on reading the full text of the articles online.

Directory of Open Access Journals

http://www.doaj.org/
The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) provides access to a growing
collection of several thousand free full text scholarly journals covering all areas
of the sciences, social sciences and humanities. It is possible to search by
journal title or browse by subject. It is also possible to search for individual
articles within the database.

JSTOR
http://www.jstor.org/
JSTOR is an online archive of scholarly journals,
providing extensive back-runs of journals in the social
sciences. Coverage starts with the very first issues
and continues to a date between 2 to 5 years prior to
current issues. Users can search and browse the
full-text of the journals, and articles can be read
online, or downloaded and printed. JSTOR is available
to academic and research institutions via site-licences,
users should contact their local library to check if their
institution subscribes to the service.

Qualitative Report
http://www.jstor.org/ http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/
The Qualitative Report (TQR) is a peer reviewed
online journal dedicated to qualitative research and critical enquiry, which also
serves as a forum and sounding board for researchers, scholars and
practitioners.

Sociological Research Online

http://www.socresonline.org.uk/home.html
An online journal that publishes high quality applied sociology articles, 'focusing
on theoretical, empirical and methodological discussions which engage with
current political, cultural and intellectual topics and debates'. Access is free to
individual users using a dial-up account or via broadband. For other users,
including those accessing the journal via university or other institutional
networks, an institutional subscription is required.

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 Internet resources for social research

Papers/articles/reports
ISER Publications and Working Papers
http://www.irc.essex.ac.uk/pubs/
A large collection of publications and working papers, from the Institute for Social
and Economic Research (ISER), a research centre at the University of Essex
that specialises in the production and analysis of longitudinal data. Also includes
the European Panel Analysis Group (EPAG) working papers.

Social Science Research Network

http://www.ssrn.com/
The SSRN is composed of a number of specialised research networks to
encourage the early distribution of research results. Their eLibrary contains
abstracts of over 114,000 papers and over 86,000 full text documents (as well
as a number of fee based publications).

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 Internet resources for social research

Datasets
Electronic access to large (and often previously inaccessible) collections of data

Census of Population Programme

http://www.census.ac.uk/
This JISC-funded site provides a brief introduction to the Census and links to the
individual support units that offer guidance on obtaining information about
Census datasets, products and publications. Information specific to teachers,
students, and trainers is also provided.

CESSDA (Council of European Social Science Data Archives)

http://www.nsd.uib.no/cessda/
CESSDA promotes the “acquisition, archiving and distribution of electronic data
for social science teaching and research in Europe”. An integrated catalogue of
the European archives is available as well as a clickable map of data archives all
around the world.

Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS)

http://www.esds.ac.uk/
The ESDS provides access to major economic and social data via four specialist
services, which all have their own websites. They are: ESDS Government,
providing large-scale UK government surveys such as the General Household
Survey and the Labour Force Survey; ESDS International, providing access to a
range of international datasets; ESDS Longitudinal, for surveys such as the
British Household Panel Survey and ESDS Qualidata, which provides access to,
and support for, qualitative data sources. You will need to register to use each of
these services, however once registered single sign-on access is available
through Athens.

UK Data Archive
http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/
The UK Data Archive (UKDA) is a centre of expertise in data acquisition,
preservation, dissemination and promotion and is curator of the largest collection
of digital data in the social sciences and humanities in the UK. It is funded by the
Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Joint Information Systems
Committee (JISC) of the Higher Education Funding Councils and the University
of Essex.

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 Internet resources for social research

Educational materials
Find online material to support learning and teaching

The Question Bank: Social Surveys Online

http://qb.soc.surrey.ac.uk/
Provides free access to questionnaires from major social surveys and associated
commentary to assist survey design. Surveys include the Census, the General
Household Survey, Labour Force Survey and British Social Attitudes
Survey. This resource also provides detailed methodological information about
these surveys.

Internet for Social Research Methods

http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/tutorial/social-research-methods/
One of the Intute: Virtual Training Suite tutorials, a free online tutorial designed
to help students, lecturers and researchers improve their Internet information
literacy and IT skills. A key educational resource, which we recommend to
our users.

Exploring Online Research Methods in a Virtual Training Environment

http://www.geog.le.ac.uk/orm/
“Exploring online research methods in a virtual training environment is an
ESRC-funded online training package designed to support researchers using
online research methods.”

Education Image Gallery

http://edina.ac.uk/eig/
The Education Image Gallery is an extensive collection of 50,000 digital images,
which can be incorporated in your educational materials. Access is via ATHENS,
ask your library if they provide a subscription to this service.

Online Dictionary of the Social Sciences

http://socialsciencedictionary.nelson.com/
Definitions of over a 1,000 terms in a range of social science disciplines,
including: sociology, criminology, political science and women’s studies.

Teaching Resources and Materials for Social Scientists (TRAMSS)

http://tramss.data-archive.ac.uk/
TRAMSS is intended to help teachers and students improve their research and
data analysis skills. The website has a tutorial, which shows you how to search
for and order data and relevant software and how to run analyses on exemplar
datasets.

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 Internet resources for social research

Organisations and societies

Most organisations now have their own website. Here are some examples …

Academy of Learned Societies in the Social Sciences

http://www.the-academy.org.uk/
The Academy is composed of academicians and the major learned societies in
the social sciences. Details of members, publications and events are available
from the site.

Association for Survey Computing

http://www.asc.org.uk/
The ASC is a non-profit organisation, affiliated to the British Computer Society
and the International Association for Statistical Computing. The site includes
organisational details, access to the ASC newsletter entitled Survey Computing,
an up-to-date software register and links to many survey related resources.

British Library
http://www.bl.uk/
This is the website for the UK’s
national library. It “contains
comprehensive information
about the Library, the scope of
its collections, and how to use
its services, along with
supporting images and
appropriate sound samples”.

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 Internet resources for social research

British Academy
http://www.britac.ac.uk/
The national academy for the humanities and social sciences (there is now also
the Arts and Humanities Research Council at http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/ which also
funds research). The British Academy publishes a guide which describes the
kinds of awards that are available from the Academy and the AHRC for scholars
in the humanities and social sciences. The site also contains links to events,
publications and news.

ESRC Society Today

http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/
ESRC Society Today is a research tool
produced by the Economic and Social
Research Council, the UK’s leading research
funding and training agency addressing
economic and social concerns. The website
aims to bring together information about ESRC
funded research and its outputs, with a variety
of other data sources to offer a unique social
science research resource. http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/

Social Research Association

http://www.the-sra.org.uk/
The Social Research Association was founded in the UK in 1978 to “advance the
conduct, development and application of social research”. This website is a
useful starting point for all professional and lay social researchers. It includes the
Association’s Ethical Guidelines and Code of Practice for the safety of
researchers.

The Royal Statistical Society (RSS)

http://www.rss.org.uk/
One of the premier statistical societies in the world founded in 1844 which
currently has over 7,500 members in the UK and elsewhere, many of whom are
professionally qualified as chartered statisticians.

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 Internet resources for social research

Research projects/centres
Use the Web to keep up with the latest research

National Centre for e-Social Science (NCeSS)

http://www.ncess.ac.uk/
NCeSS aims to raise awareness of, and expertise in, e-science within the social
science research community. They provide training, information and support to
social scientists with an interest in using these new technologies in their
research.

Evidence Network
http://www.evidencenetwork.org/
This is the website of the ESRC’s UK Centre for Evidence Based Policy and
Practice (EBPP). The site aims to be a national focus point for EBPP and
includes a reference bibliography, links to some databases and gateways in the
social sciences, downloadable working papers on EBPP and information about
their journal Evidence and Policy.

ESRC Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP)

http://www.tlrp.org/
The Programme comprises a number of large-scale research projects and other
related activities designed to “support research which will lead to improvements
in the achievement of learners of all ages, in all sectors and contexts of
education, training and lifelong learning throughout the UK”.

Campbell Collaboration
http://www.campbellcollaboration.org/
The Campbell Collaboration’s (also known as C2) objectives are to prepare,
maintain and disseminate systematic reviews of studies of social interventions,
and to make their findings accessible to decision makers and the general public.
The Campbell Library consists of two databases: the C2 Social, Psychological,
Education, and Criminological Trials Registry (C2-SPECTR), and the C2 Reviews
of Interventions, and Policy Evaluations (C2-RIPE). Many of the documents are
available in PDF format.

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 Internet resources for social research

Government bodies
Public services and government information online

Direct.Gov
http://www.direct.gov.uk/
Direct.Gov is the official Internet gateway to UK government information for the
British public and forms part of the UK’s e-Government initiative, to deliver public
services directly via the Internet. Many UK government departments have
programmes of high quality research and development of potential interest to
social researchers.

Department of Health Research and Development

http://www.dh.gov.uk/PolicyAndGuidance/ResearchAndDevelopment/fs/en
Excellent resources for health-based research including links to the NHS
Research and Development Methodology Programme, and the Research
Findings Electronic Register (ReFeR) and the National Research Register
(NRR), for accessing current research findings funded by, or of interest to, the
Department of Health and the National Health Service (NHS) respectively.

National Archives: Records of the

UK Government
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
The repository of the national archives for
England and Wales. It was formed in March
2003 from the amalgamation of the former
Public Record Office and the Historical
Manuscripts Commission. This amazing
collection spans 1000 years of British history,
from the Domesday Book to current
government papers.

National Statistics Online

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/
A must-view website. It offers summaries, http://www.statistics.gov.uk/
reports and detailed data on Britain’s economy,
population and society at national and local
level, many available free of charge.

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 Internet resources for social research

Mailing lists
Great for networking with like-minded people

JISCmail
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/
JISCmail provides tools for setting up and
running email discussion lists and is free to
members of the HE and FE community in
the UK. There are a number of lists for social
researchers and you can often browse the
archives of previous discussions. If there
isn’t a list already, you can easily set one up
yourself and invite others to join. Some
examples:

http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/

ESDS-NEWS
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/esds-news.html
Run by ESDS, gives information about seminars, datasets, developments,
conferences and publications for those interested in the analysis of statistical,
survey, historical, qualitative and administrative computer-readable data.

QUAL-SOFTWARE
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/qual-software.html
An excellent to-the-point discussion list to increase awareness and debate about
Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software. The list provides an
instant forum for users and developers to air problems, offer opinions, argument
and advice on the variety of packages in use.

QUALITATIVE-RESEARCH
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/qualitative-research.html
A list devoted to all aspects of qualitative research: methodological; theoretical
and practical and is also intended to facilitate discussion of diverse qualitative
research: interviewing; ethnography; participation observation; focus groups;
biographical and life history studies.

12 www.intute.ac.uk/socialsciences/
Discover the best of the Web using Intute
The Internet can be a powerful tool for learning, teaching and research, offering a huge
range of resources and services. However, finding relevant information online can be a
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concerns – particularly in education and research contexts.

Intute exists to help students, teachers, researchers and librarians make sense of the Web
by providing access to the very best Internet resources for education and research, selected
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: social sciences
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Getting involved with Intute

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March 2007