LibGuides: SOC 300F Unequal From Birth: Child Health From a Social Perspective: Techniques for Locating Sources

Browse

If you are still forming your research question, identifying keywords, or would like to see what topics are being discussed in the current scholarly conversation, try browsing the table of contents of journals or recent books purchased for the library.

Browse Journals by Subject
Enter a topic like social mobility in the journal search to locate and access scholarly journals. This is a good technique if you are still developing your topic or want to look at recent literature
Browse Books by Subject
Use the advanced search form on BruKnow to search only the subject data for books. Subjects in a library catalog are like hashtags on social media or categories on Netflix or Hulu. Subjects group similar sources together and make them easier for researchers to locate.

Use what you have

You can find scholarly literature, books, secondary sources and news in the citations of the information you already have. Your class syllabus, online news articles, and public resources like Wikipedia are great sources for locating new references.

When you find a citation of interest and you're ready to find a copy to read, first identify what type of source it is - is it a book? An academic article? A news article? A report? If you are unable to locate a copy from Google, the Library and our catalog BruKnow can help.

If you need help identifying what type of source you are looking at, refer to the style guide used in this class. If no style guide is assigned, the ASA style guide has example references in the document from your assignment.

You can also use citations to find more research by seeing who else cited the original article. Google Scholar and the library database Web of Science allow you to search for citing references.

BruKnow (Library search)
BruKnow is the Library's platform for searching books, ebooks, databases, articles, multimedia, and special collections.
APA Style Guide Reference Examples
To find the reference example you need, first select a category (e.g., periodicals) and then choose the appropriate type of work (e.g., journal article) and follow the relevant example.
Google Scholar
Google Scholar uses the Google search engine to search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports. Google Scholar results now include links to Brown University Library resources. These links will appear automatically if you search from an on-campus computer or use the link above; otherwise, off-campus you must go to "Scholar Preferences" and search for "Brown". For further information see Google Scholar FAQ.

Search with keywords

Example

How did inequality of income by education level change in states that did or did not raise the minimum wage over time?

How did inequality of income by education level change in states that did or did not raise the minimum wage over time?

Create a table for keeping track of synonyms and search strategy
inequality	income	education level	minimum wage	time
	wages	educational attainment
	earnings	level of education

Search query #1: Inequality AND (income or wages) AND education* AND "minimum wage"

Search query # 2: (income or wages) AND education* AND "minimum wage"

Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Broadly search for scholarly literature. Connect Brown University in Google settings to access full text, current.
Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. Google Scholar helps you find relevant work across the world of scholarly research. Google Scholar includes much of Brown's library materials as well. Look for the "FindIt@Brown" button.
BruKnow This link opens in a new window
BruKnow is the Library's platform for searching books, ebooks, databases, articles, multimedia, digital collections, and special collections, current

Not sure how to turn your research question in to keywords? See the Guide to Searching.

Refer to a Resource Guide

Each guide contains links to sources to locate subject-specific sources, including primary source material (congressional hearings, declassified government documents), policy research, books and scholarly articles.

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