Libraries

A Brief Guide to Searching Social Sciences Abstracts Full-Text

Social Sciences Full-Text is a database that indexes and abstracts articles from over 500 English language journals published in the U.S. and elsewhere. Topics include anthropology, area studies, community health and medical care, criminal justice and criminology, economics, family studies, geography, gerontology, international relations, law, minority studies, planning and public administration, policy studies, political science, psychiatry, psychology, social work and public welfare, sociology, urban studies, women’s studies, and related subjects. Indexing begins in 1983 and abstracting in 1994; the full text of selected periodicals (approximately one-third of the indexed journals) begins in 1995. Updating is daily.

NOTE: the online full-text material in this database is quite limited Mercy subscribes to many of the indexed journals, however. Check the “Periodical Holdings” list on the library web page for the journals the library carries.

Searching Social Sciences Abstracts Full Text using keywords

Step 1

Write down your topic as a statement or question and identify the key words or phrases in your statement/question.

For example, if you are interested in finding recent information on the portrayal of the family in television commercials, your key terms would be family and television commercials.

Step 2

Enter your search term(s) in the “Search For” box (es) near the top of the Advanced Search screen, putting each search word or phrase in a separate box. Keyword fields in Social Sciences Abstracts include subject headings, title, abstract, author, and journal name, so your term(s) will be searched in each of these fields.

Step 3

Select search limits, if desired, and click on the “Start” button below the search boxes. You can limit your search to articles published during specific time periods or to peer reviewed (reviewed by experts in the subject before approved for publication) articles. Do not select “Full Text Articles” or “Page Image,” or do so with caution, as this database includes very little full-text material.

Step 4

If items are found that match your term(s) and limit(s), a list of results will display, with the number of results (“records”) indicated in the box at the top of the list. They are listed in order of date, and your search terms are highlighted.

When you see an article of interest, click the article’s title to view all the available information about it, including subject headings and an abstract, if one is available. Make note of relevant subject headings you might want to use in further searches.

If the article is available in full text, a blue and/or red icon will appear to the left of the item. (The green “library owns?” icon does not function at this time.)

To revise a search during the search process, click “Revise Search” near the bottom of the screen, make your revisions, and click the “Start” button.

To move to the next page of results, click the forward arrow in the bottom task bar.

Step 5

You can print or email a single item by selecting “Print Email Save” in the frame to the left of where the item is displayed, selecting the option you want (print or email), and following on screen instructions. You can also save a group of items to print or email together. To save a group of items, click in the box next to each item of interest in the “Results” list.” To view and print or email the items you marked, click “Get Marked” in the taskbar at the bottom of the “Results” list and follow the instructions.

Searching Social Sciences Abstracts Full Text using subject headings

Although there may not always be a subject heading in Social Sciences Abstracts that describes your search concept, a search using subject terms from the Thesaurus will often produce more accurate and relevant results than a search using keywords.

Step 1

Check for subject headings for your key terms

Click “Thesaurus” in the frame on the left side of the screen, enter one of your search terms in the box, and click the “Start” button. You will be taken to a listing of relevant subject terms used in the database. If you had entered television commercials as your search term, for example, the next screen would provide you with the subject heading for it-- television advertising, as well as related subject headings and the number of articles that appear under each term. Write down the term(s) of interest to you. You can also run a search on one or more of the terms. Click the “records” link to retrieve a list of articles about the highlighted subject. To retrieve articles about multiple subjects, use the checkboxes next to the terms and click “Search Marked Subjects” in the bottom taskbar.

For each of your other key terms, click the “Thesaurus” button, press “Clear” in the bottom taskbar, enter a new term, and click “Start.”

Step 2

Click “Advanced Search” on the left frame of the screen and type your subject terms in the “Search For” boxes on the search screen

Put each word or phrase in a separate box and select “Subject(s)” from the drop down menu in the adjoining boxes. In this example, you would enter family and television advertising.

NOTE: Successful searches often include a combination of subject headings and keywords. Select “Subject(s)” from the drop down menu for each subject heading from the Thesaurus and “Keyword(s)” for words or phrases that are not in the thesaurus.

Follow Steps 3-5 listed above.

The “Help” link in the left hand frame provides additional search tips and guidance.

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