SWRK 330 - Social Work Research Methods

Databases

Databases are available to search on your topic.  Each one indexes unique journals and either provides a summary (abstract) or full text of the article.  If full text is not available, look for the FIND IT button or link to direct you where the full text is available.

Seaching hacks

Brainstorm synonyms for your topic.

Come up with a list to help expand your searching options.

If your topic is college students, you may also search for undergraduates, freshman, and also related terms like: higher education and universities.

Use the Boolean search operators: and, or, not, near.

AND Reduces the number of search results by requiring more than one term to appear in the same article. (i.e., foster care and aging out)

OR Expands the number of search results by expanding the possible matches to include either one or the other term. (i.e., teen or adolescent)

NOT Reduces search results to omit references to articles with certain words that have nothing to do with your topic. (i.e., pets not dogs)

Put it all together to make a sophisticated search:
"transition housing" and "foster care" and teen*


Truncation

Use the asterisk (*) to find various word endings

Searching for child* will return:

  • child
  • childhood
  • children
  • child's

Quotations

Use quotes around multi-word concepts:

  • "social media"
  • "first-generation college students"
  • "transitional housing"

Facets, these are located on the left side in OneSearch and next to your search results

These can help refine your search

Sort- by relevance is default, but you can change to other options like Date-newest

Availability- this is where you can select  to search for Peer-review Journals, Full-text online (easy online access), Open Access (not behind a paywall), and Held by library

Subject - this can be a great source for synonyms

Date- easy way to get a specific date range, like last 10 years

and more!

Link Google Scholar to the Meriam Library

To utilize the full potential of Google Scholar linked it to Meriam Library. By doing this you can then see if the library has the items that you want (Find It @ Chico) and if not then you can go directly to ILS. To link to the Meriam Library follow the below steps:

1. Once in Google Scholar, go to Settings at the top of the page

2. Click on Library links 

3. Search for CSU, Chico; select and save

4. You may be directed to login to your portal accout to verify library access

Concept Map

Meriam Library | CSU, Chico